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DALE JR. STILL STINGING FROM TALLADEGA, SPORTS B1SEAWORLD: AP study shows many marine mammals in captivity often live longer, A6 HOA FIGHT: Small ag causes big stir for retiree, A3 LEESBURG, FLORIDA Friday, July 4, 2014 www.dailycommercial.com Vol. 138 No. 185 4 sectionsINDEX CLASSIFIED C8 COMICS A8 CROSSWORDS C5 DIVERSIONS A7 LEGALS C5 BUSINESS C4 NATION A5 OBITUARIES A4 SPORTS B1 VOICES A9 WORLD A6 TODAYS WEATHER Detailed forecast on page A10.88 / 75Sunny intervals with storms 50 JIM KUHNHENNAssociated PressWASHINGTON Does anyone in politics dare talk up the econo my? Apparently not. After ve months of steady job growth and with unemployment hitting a six-year low, the reaction in Wash ington Thursday was a collective Yeah, but ... Across the political spectrum, liberals and conservatives still found reason to de spair and point ngers a function of election-year politics, beenthere-before skepticism and honest percep tions by many Ameri cans that the recovery has yet to improve their lives. Consider this from Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota: Too many working families are still treading water. Our focus now must be on solutions that strengthen the middle class and give more hardworking Americans a fair shot by raising the minimum wage, making college more affordable, and investing in workforce training. And this from Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus: Were glad to see some Amer icans found work last month, but we cant rest until jobs are easy to nd. Thats why Re publicans have passed ROXANNE BROWN | Staff Writerroxanne.brown@dailycommercial.comStaff Sgt. Socheat Sok Mom, a retired re sup port specialist with the United States Army, along with his wife and daugh ter, stood speechless in the driveway of their new home Wednesday morning. The south Clermont home off U.S. Highway 27 near the Four Corners area had been abandoned and vacant but was renovated top to bottom and presented to Mom through the Military Warriors Support Foundation in partnership with Bank of America. The family was invited inside to see it for the rst time after a brief presentation of colors and the pledge of allegiance headed by a local chapter of Patriot Guard Volleyball enthusiasts and the general public are invited to the grand opening of the Florida Region of USA Volleyballs Hickory Point Beach sand volleyball complex at 9 a.m. Saturday at 27341 State Road 19 in Tavares. Gov. Rick Scott will be attending the grand opening of his campaign ofce at 10 a.m. in The Villages today. The ofce is at 972 Old Mill Run in Lake Sumter Landing and will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. RICK SCOTT IN THE VILLAGESLocal farmers, shermen, craftsmen, artists and more line the streets of downtown Leesburg by Towne Square from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday for the Saturday Morning Market. Live entertainment is featured.SATURDAY MORNING MARKET VOLLEYBALL COMPLEX1 2 3 TOP WEEKENDS3 Staff ReportThe Florida Supreme Court last week rejected ex-Mascotte Police Ofcer James Ducketts latest death sentence appeal. Duckett, now 56, was convicted in 1988 for the 1987 sexual battery and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee. His latest appeal focused main ly on allegations that the testimony of an FBI hair and ber analyst was false and misleading, and that a witness later recanted her testimony. The high court rejected Ducketts challenge of the analysts quali cations as an expert and said his trial testimo ny was by no means the only evidence supporting the conviction in this case. The analyst had testied that a pubic hair found in McAbees underwear was consistent with Ducketts. Duckett also claimed that witness Gwendolyn Gurley later recanted her testimony about seeing a police car parked near a convenience store on the night of the murder, see ing McAbee outside the store, hearing Duckett call her name, and later seeing a big man and a small per son driving away in the cruiser. Duckett had offered as newly discovered evidence a pair of afda vits from Gurleys children that she lied at trial in order to get favorable treatment from law en forcement regarding certain offenses. However, the high court said, On review, we held that the recan tation evidence did not merit a new trial and condence in the ver dict was not under mined. Other trial evidence against Duckett included him asking the store clerk about McAbees name and age on the night of the murder, her ngerprints found on Fla. Supreme Court rejects Mascotte killers latest appeal DUCKETT Positive numbers, but politicians hedge their bets JACQUELYN MARTIN / APPresident Barack Obama stands next to a painting of Uncle Sam, during a visit with workers at 1776, a hub for tech startups on Thursday in Washington. The president said job growth in June shows the recovery is taking hold, but the economy could still do better.CLERMONTVeterans family gets gift of independence PHOTOS BY LINDA CHARLTON / SPECIAL TO THE DAILY COMMERCIAL Dao Mom receives the keys to the house from John Moskos, while husband Sok Mom holds his presentation plaque and daughter Keira rubs her eyes. Young Keira Mom plays with a bubble in her new room in her new house.SEE ECONOMY | A2SEE APPEAL | A2SEE HOME | A2

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A2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 HOW TO REACH US JULY 3CASH 3 . ............................................... 5-9-9 Afternoon . .......................................... 0-6-8 PLAY 4 . ............................................. 0-6-0-3 Afternoon . ....................................... 8-5-4-0FLORIDALOTTERY JULY 2FANTASY 5 . ............................. 4-5-13-14-16 FLORIDA LOTTO . ............... 7-15-36-37-39-45 POWERBALL .................... 8-18-45-53-5835 THE NEWSPAPER OF CHOICE FOR LAKE AND SUMTER COUNTIES SINCE 1875The Daily Commercial (ISSN 0896-1042) is published daily for $90.74 per year (plus Florida sales tax) by Halifax Media Group at 212 East Main Street, Leesburg, Florida. Periodicals postage is paid at the USPO, Leesburg, FL. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to The Daily Commercial, P.O. Box 490007, Leesburg, FL 34749-0007. All material contained in this edition is property of The Daily Commercial and is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Reproduction is forbidden without written consent from the publisher.Call 352-787-0600 in Lake County or 877-702-0600 in Sumter County 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Call 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday and 7 to 10 a.m. on Sunday.Call the Circulation Department 48 hours ahead to stop service.365-8200In Sumter County: 877-702-0600 ADVERTISING Retail . ................... 365-8200 Classied . ............. 314-3278 CIRCULATION Lake Co. . ....... 352-787-0600 Sumter Co. . ... 877-702-0600 Circulation Billing . 787-0600 ACCOUNTING . ...... 365-8216 MISSED YOUR NEWSPAPER? REDELIVERY NOT AVAILABLE IN ALTOONA OR SUMTER GOING ON VACATIONSUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Call 352-787-0600 (Lake Co.) or 877-702-0600 (Sumter Co.) between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Prepayments for 3 months or more, mail to: Circulation Dept., The Daily Commercial, P.O. Box 490007, Leesburg, FL 347490007. Billed monthly at the rates shown. The Daily Commercial promptly corrects errors of fact appearing in its pages. If you believe we have made an error, call the news department at 352-365-8250. Home Delivery 3 Mos. T ax T otal 6 Mos. T ax T otal 1 Yr. T ax T otal Daily/Sunday 28.43 1.99 30.42 50.05 3.50 53.56 90.74 6.35 97.09 SUBSCRIPTION RATES OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY STAFF INFORMATIONSTEVE SKAGGS, publisher352-365-8213 ........................... steve.skaggs@dailycommercial.comMARY MANNING-JACOBS, advertising director352-365-8287 ............... mary.manning-jacobs@dailycommercial.comNEWSROOM CONTACTSTOM MCNIFF, executive editor352-365-8250 ............................... tom.mcniff@dailycommercial.comWHITNEY WILLARD, copy desk chief352-365-8258 .......................... whitney.willard@dailycommercial.comPAUL RYAN, digital editor352-365-8270 .................................. paul.ryan@dailycommercial.comTO REPORT LOCAL NEWSSCOTT CALLAHAN, news editor352-365-8203 ........................... scott.callahan@dailycommercial.comREPORTERS LIVI STANFORD, county government, schools352-365-8257 .............................. livi.stanford@dailycommercial.comROXANNE BROWN, South Lake County352-394-2183 ......................... roxanne.brown@dailycommercial.comMILLARD IVES, police and courts 352-365-8262 ................... millard.ives@dailycommercial.com THERESA CAMPBELL, Leesburg and The Villages 352-365-8209 .................theresa.campbell@dailycommercial.comAUSTIN FULLER, business news, Mount Dora, Eustis, Tavares 352-365-8263 .........................austin.fuller@dailycommercial.comLETTERS TO THE EDITOR Email submissions to letters@dailycommercial.com SPORTS RESULTSSchools or coaches can report game results after 6 p.m. by calling 352-365-8268, or 352-365-8279. Submissions also can be emailed to sports@dailycommercial.com.FRANK JOLLEY, sports editor352-365-8268 ................................ frank.jolley@dailycommercial.comGOOD FOR YOU AND CELEBRATIONS ANNOUNCEMENTSEmail news about your awards and personal or professional mile stones along with a photo, if you desire - to pam.fennimore@ dailycommercial.com.CALENDAREmail upcoming events to pam.fennimore@dailycommercial.com.dozens of jobs bills in the House of Representatives. Sadly, Democrats in Washington, D.C., have other pri orities. Even President Barack Obama, who would be eager to take credit for an economy on the mend, felt compelled to throw in a dampening caveat as he drew attention to the 288,000 jobs created in June, to the lower, 6.1 percent unemployment rate and to the fastest job growth since 1999. As much progress as has been made, there are still folks out there who are struggling, he said Thurs day. We still have not seen as much increase in income and wages as wed like to see. A lot of folks are still digging themselves out of challeng es that arose out of the Great Recession. To be sure, there are real economic reasons to be wary, or at least not euphoric, over the most recent re port. The labor market remains weak, with a labor force participation rate stuck at 62.8 percent, the low est since 1978. Construction jobs reached their highest level since June 2009 but are still more than 1.7 million jobs below their 2006 peak, according to an analysis of jobs numbers by the Associated General Contractors of America. Moreover, hiring has tended to be predominantly in low-wage jobs, leading to stagnant wage growth, and the number of hours worked per week has not changed. Gains in paychecks are small enough that they can be wiped out by ination. The headline number masks the lingering structural weakness in the U.S. labor market, said Lindsey Piegza, a chief economist at the Sterne Agee brokerage house. Even if we saw Junes rate of job growth every month from here on out, we still wouldnt get back to health in the labor market for an other 2 1/2 years, said Heidi Shier holz of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. More important, beyond those statistics, are public perceptions of the economy. An Associated Press-GfK poll in May, found that the share of those surveyed who called the economy good stood at 34 percent, while 65 percent described it as poor. Thats about the same as it has been all year, though slightly above where it was during the partial government shutdown in October. Few expected improvement in the economy over the next 12 months, and more ex pected it to get worse. The perceptions have a partisan hue, as well. Economic condence as mea sured by Gallup found Democrats had the highest and Republicans the lowest. In the face of that, politicians are not likely to cheer an economic number. In the voting booth, econom ic perception beats economic statistics every time, said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Whats more, Democrats and Re publicans want to blame each oth er for not enacting policies they say would create more jobs. So Obama complains about Republicans not increasing the minimum wage and Republican House Speaker John Boehner says Obama has failed to lead on issues such as trade and workplace exibility. In order for us to make real prog ress, the president must do more than criticize, Boehner said. With the economy still emerg ing as the top issue of the day with a plurality of voters, each side will continue to brand the other as uncompromising obstructionists. ECONOMY FROM PAGE A1 the hood of his patrol car and tire tracks found at a local lake matching the tires on his cruiser. The girl was assaulted, strangled and drowned in that lake. In addition, it was brought up during trial that over a ve-month period, Duckett allegedly picked up three other young women in his patrol car while on duty, reportedly making sexual advances toward two of them and engaging in sexual activity with the third. APPEAL FROM PAGE A1 Riders and a few words by Bank of America ofcials. Friends, family and neighbors looked on as the family, through smiles and tears of joy, entered the home. Reas Dip, Moms mother, who knows little English beyond Thank you, needed no words, however, because her tears, bows and uplifted hands spoke volumes. Despite all the thank yous directed at them, John P. Moskos, Bank of Americas Central Florida Market president, said it is Mom who deserves the gratitude. This is just a small way for us to say thank you to Sergeant Mom for his service to the country and to his family for their sacrices and support, Moskos said. After having a look around the house, Mom admitted feeling over whelmed, yet blessed. This is a little bit over whelming. I really didnt expect so many people to be here with us today and caring so much for us. Were truly blessed and well be forever thankful. We have never had a house of our own and really, we havent been together as a family too much since I only just got out of the military in April, Mom said. Moms wife, Dao, said it all feels like a dream to her. One of her rst or ders of business, she said, is fencing the back yard and planting a garden. We love it (the house), but we just cant believe it. It hasnt hit us yet. Maybe in like a month well wake up and say, Where are we? How did we get here? Dao Mom said, adding that their furniture is scheduled to arrive from Washington state later this month. Keira, who immediately found her room because of the toys, treasure box, drawing tablets and crayons, plopped down on a purple bean bag and began blowing bubbles. Keira said she could not wait to move in and hoped future dcor ideas for her room include characters from Avatar and The Last Airbender. When asked if she liked her room, her answer each time was a clear thumbs up. Seeing how happy the family is and peeking in to see Keira blowing bubbles and sitting in her room, not wanting to come out, just makes it all worthwhile. Thats what its all about, said Brian Chilton, Bank of Americas regional market manager for Lake County. Its incredibly moving seeing the impact of our program rsthand. And just knowing what these veterans did for the country, you just cant thank them enough. Bank of America recently surpassed its goal to donate 1,000 proper ties to nonprots supporting military ser vice member families and rst responders. The bank works closely with Military Warriors Support Foundation and other nonprot organizations that identify the home re cipients and also provide related services, such as nancial counseling. Originally envisioned as a three-year program when announced in August 2012, Bank of Amer ica reached its 1000th military home donation more than a year ahead of schedule. The bank will continue the program, ofcials said. Moms home marks the 240th home the bank has presented to a returning veteran in Florida. Mom served in the U.S. Army from October, 2007 to April, 2014. Mom was born in Cambodia, served in the ROTC throughout High School in Long Beach Calif. and joined the Army, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. While in the Uruzgan Province of Afghanistan in 2012, Moms platoon was attacked by a suicide bomber. Wounded and dazed by the blast, Mom aided fellow soldiers injured by the blast. Mom was awarded a Purple Heart and an Army Commendation Medal with V Device for valorous actions under enemy re. Mom, planning to pur sue a career in the medical eld, said he is grateful to be alive and home with his family. That suicide bomber came out of nowhere. There were kids all around the place and he was about 15 feet away from us. Nobody knew who he was. We tried to stop him, but he just exploded himself. Two people died and a lot of people were injured and on the ground. I was lucky, Mom said at the home dedication Wednesday. Mom is no stranger to hardship, however. Nor is his family. His mother, Reas Dip, led four small children and her own mother safely out from the depths of the Cambodian jungle to the safety of a refugee camp in Thailand. They made a grueling, month-long trek through constant drizzling rain, rice eld res, mud, heat and shelling. The family arrived in Dallas, Texas in the winter of 1980 and after settling in Long Beach, Calif., Mom recalls the familys struggles with gangs and poverty. Still they endured it and looking back, Mom said the entire family is grateful to be alive, in the safety of the United States and in close proximity to one another now. His siblings live only one hour away in Zephyrhills. Mom said even the injuries he sustained while serving in the Army are nothing compared to what the United States has given him and his family. I was a little kid, like about ve, so I vaguely remember eeing Cambodia, though Ive heard stories from my older sister and brother and from my mom and grandmother, Mom said. I clearly remember being just feet from the Thailand border when we turned around and saw that my sister, who was carrying our youngest brother, had dropped him, unable to endure his weight through deep banks of mud. My mother, older brother and me had to run and get him, and just as we were lifting him, a shell that landed right beside us in the mud, slid away from us as a mudslide occurred so it didnt hit us. My mother always breaks down in tears when she talks about it, he said. Its amazing were here today. Its amazing what people have done to help us and well never forget that, Mom said. HOME FROM PAGE A1 LINDA CHARLTON / SPECIAL TO THE DAILY COMMERCIAL The Patriot Guard Riders were the honor guard for the ceremony, held in the Four Corners area of south Lake CountyThis is a little bit overwhelming. I really didnt expect so many people to be here with us today and caring so much for us. Were truly blessed and well be forever thankful. We have never had a house of our own and really, we havent been together as a family too much since I only just got out of the military in April. Dao MomArmy veteran whose family received a house in Clermont

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A3 Area Briefs ww ... and well share it with our readers. Some of our best story ideas and photos come from our readers. So dont hesitate to share your youth activities, awards, accomplishments, festivals, charity events and other things that make our communities special. And dont overlook those family milestones birthdays, engagements, marriages, business promotions and military news.Just email your photos and news to ... pamfennimore@dailycommercial.com IF YOU SEE NEWS HAPPENING, RECORD IT TAVARES Lake government offices close for Fourth of JulyThe Lake County Commission, Clerk of Courts, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector will be closed today in observance of July 4, as well as all operations for the Lake County Solid Waste Division, LakeXpress xedroute bus service and the Lake County Welcome Center, 20763 U.S. Highway 27 in Groveland. Discovery Gardens, at 1951 Woodlea Road, will also be closed today and will reopen at 9 / a.m. on Monday. All Florida Department of Health ofces in Lake County are closed and will reopen on Monday. For information, go to www.lakecounty.gov.LEESBURG Leesburg Public Library closed for holidayThe Leesburg Public Library, 100 E. Main St., will be closed today in obser vance of Independence Day, reopening on Saturday from 9 / a.m. to 5 / p.m. For information, call 352-728-9790 or go to www.leesburgorida.gov/ library.LEESBURG Elementary principal to host meet-and-greetNewly appointed principal at Leesburg Elementary, Dr. Patrick Galatowitsch, will host a meet-andgreet event for the public at 5 / p.m., on Tuesday at the school, 2229 South St. Formerly principal at Fern Creek Elementary in Orlando for the past ve years and an Orange County Public Schools administrator for the past 25 years, Galatowitsch is joining Lake County Schools for the 2014-2015 school year. For information, call the school at 352365-6308.LADY LAKE Uncle Donalds Farm hosts Wednesday Camp for kidsActivities for this fun camp at Uncle Donalds Farm, 2713 Grifn Ave., in Lady Lake include hands-on experiences with farm animals, nature studies, brushing horses, games and more as they spend a day on the farm. Kids ages 6-14 can participate from 9:45 / a.m. to 3 / p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug. 13. The camps costs $25 per child per day and. Kids need to bring a bag lunch. For reservations and information, call 352-753-2882.MOUNT DORA Volunteers to release beetles to fight air potatoesResidents are asked to assist in the release of leaf beetles, which tar get only the air potato vine at an event hosted by the Lake County Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, at 9:30 / a.m., on July 11 at Palm Island Park, 411 S. Tremain St., in Mount Dora. Participants should dress accordingly and activities and games will be provided for children after the event. Call at 352-343-4101 or email Burnb48@u.edu for information.State&RegionNEWS EDITOR SCOTT CALLAHAN scott.callahan@dailycommercial.com 352-365-8203 AUSTIN FULLER | Staff Writeraustin.fuller@dailycommercial.comWhile work is taking place on Donnelly Street and Third Avenue, sever al other construction projects are going on in the downtown Mount Dora area. A $1,486,013 project that is expected to be complet ed by Nov. 30 will create an underground storm water treatment system that will reduce pollutants going to Lake Dora, according to Mount Dora Public Communications Ofcer Kelda Senior. The shufeboard courts in Donnelly Park also will be replaced by an event pad that will cov er the storm water treatment system, according to a press release and a fol low up email from Senior. The courts were not used anymore, although in the past they were quite popu lar, said Senior, adding the event pad will have met al loops for special event tents. The streets that will be JASON DEARENAssociated PressJACKSONVILLE A tiny American ag stuck between bright purple ow ers on a Jacksonville re tirees porch has become a tempest in a teapot at a Florida condominium community. Like many planned communities, The Tides Condominium at Sweetwa ter home to 73-year-old Larry Murphree has strict rules about how one properly displays Christmas lights, parks a car and even ies Old Glory. After previous objec tions by the condo association, Murphree festooned the inside of his garage with Christmas lights when his outside display was deemed improper. He moved his guests cars when the association com plained about how they were parked. But a request to remove his 17-by-12-inch ag from a ower pot on his porch proved to be the last straw for the U.S. Air Force veter an. They want everything just so, he said about the condo association. Theyve got to be stopped, and Im going to stop them. Ive just dug in my heels. Murphrees tiny ag violates the communitys ower pot ordinance which says that contents of planters are limited to maintained foliage only, documents show. Homeowners at The Tides are permitted to dis play ags, but it must be done in accordance with specic condo rules. The ags must be in ag brack ets and hung so they are even with the homes ad dress plate. We have established rules that conform with the U.S. Code and Flori da statutes regarding ag etiquette, and we encour age residents to y Amer ican ags in accordance with the state and national MILLARD IVES | Staff Writermillard.ives@dailycommercial.comA man accused of hav ing public sex in The Vil lages last month was sentenced to six months in jail. David A. Bobilya, 49, of Summereld, was sentenced Wednesday to 180 days in the Sum ter County Jail and one year of probation on a plea deal on indecent exposure charges. He MILLARD IVES | Staff Writermillard.ives@dailcommercial.comTwo workers fell from near the top of a construction site in Tavares on Wednesday after a set of trusses collapsed. The incident occurred about 6 / p.m. next to the Tav ares Surgery Center on Mayo Drive after one truss fell and about seven more tumbled af ter it, Tavares police Lt. Jason Paynter said. It was like a domino effect, Paynter said. The two unidentied men fell at least 20 feet to the con crete. One man received mostly nicks and scratches and refused medical treat ment but the other fell on his head and was airlifted to Or lando Regional Medical Cen ter as a precaution. Both men were conscious and breathing after the fall, and the injuries are not con sidered life-threatening. Neither was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Paynter said it is the same construction site where strong winds knocked down walls of the building last month. How ever, there was no wind at the time of Wednesdays accident.Construction workers injured as trusses collapse BRETT LE BLANC / DAILY COMMERCIAL The site of a building worksite collapse in Tavares, is shown on Thursday. On Wednesday, two workers fell after a set of trusses collapsed. MOUNT DORAMore changes coming to downtownTAVARESTiny flag creates big stir for Jacksonville retiree PHOTOS BY JASON DEAREN / AP In this photo taken Wednesday, Larry Murphree, 73, stands in his garage next to an upside down American ag in Jacksonville The U.S. The small ag in a ower pot placed at the entrance of Larry Murphrees home, in Jacksonville, that his condo association has banned him from displaying. DARA KAMNews Service of FloridaWinners of Floridas ve, highly sought-after medical marijuana licenses could be selected through lotteries, ac cording to a draft rule released late Wednesday by the Department of Health. Some 41 nurseries are eligible to grow the pot, including three in Lake County. The 16-page draft rule comes in advance of an agency workshop Monday in Tallahassee that is drawing heavy attention. The draft rule, gener ally considered a starting point, outlines how the state intends to im plement a new law, signed by Gov. Scott, that made Florida one of nearly two dozen states that permit some sort of marijuana. Floridas law restricts legal mari juana to strains that are State rolls out plan for high-stakes pot industryMan in public sex case sentencedSEE PROJECTS | A5SEE SENTENCE | A4SEE FLAG | A4SEE POT | A4

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A4 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 Tr ustedbyhundredsoffamilies forthecareoftheirbelovedpets!Staffonsite24/7.Daycareavailable. Largeairconditioned indoorplayareas. State-of-the-artgroomingstudio. Grooming7daysaweek. 3groomersonstaff.352.253.0059 1083 7 U.S. Hw y. 441,Suite 3, Leesburg (n ex t toHomeDepot)www petlodg e andspa.com OBITUARIESWindy M. Collins EagleWindy Michelle Collins Eagle, Funeral Ser vices for Windy Mi chelle Collins Eagle, age 54, of Mascotte, FL, who passed away on Wednesday June 24, 2014, will be held Saturday July 5, 2014, 3:30 P.M. at New Ja cobs Chapel Missionary Baptist Church 410 West Highway 50 Cl ermont, FL. Interment will follow in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Mas cott, FL. Visitation will be held on Friday July 4, 2014 from 5-7 P.M. at the Church. She is sur vived by her Husband: Carol Eagle; her children, other relatives and sorrowing friends. Marvin C. Zanders Funeral Home, Inc.. 232 W. Michael Gladden Blvd., Apopka, Florida. (407) 886-3388 www.zander sfuneralhome.com A Zanders ServiceJoseph James GaynorJoseph James Gaynor, age 96, died at Lake Port Square on Sunday, June 29, 2014 after a short illness. Born June 25, 1918 in Baltimore, MD, he lived in Baltimore and Wilmington, DE be fore serving in the Coast Guard in World War II. He worked for the B&O Railroad and lived in Fanwood NJ, Sever na Park MD and Lou isville KY where he was President and Chair man of the Board of the K&IT Railroad. He re tired from the railroad to Tavares FL in 1981 where he continued to enjoy golf, boating and woodworking. He also lived in Lady Lake FL before moving to Lake Port Square. He was ac tive in the Rotary Club, Lake Square Presbyterian Church, and the Residents Advisory Board of Lake Port Square. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Mary C Gaynor of Lake Port Square, and daughter Victoria G Lerch of Lothian MD, son James Gaynor of Heathrow FL, three grand children and four great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on July 12th from 1PM to 3PM at Lake Port Square, 821 Lake Port Blvd, Leesburg FL. in the west building. Relatives and friends are invited to Joes memorial celebration. Interment will be at Flor ida National Cemetery, Bushnell FL. Online condolences may be left at www.beyersfuner alhome.com. Arrangements entrusted to Bey ers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg, FL.DEATH NOTICESNathan Duckworth SessumNathan Duckworth Sessum, 58, of Wildwood, died Monday, June 30, 2014. Rock er-Cusack Mortuary, Leesburg.Martha Esperanza MatinezMartha Esperanza Martinez, 55, of Al tamonte Springs, died Saturday, June 28, 2014. Rocker-Cusack Mortuary, Leesburg.Daniel W. MasonDaniel W. Bill Mason, 90, of Tavares, died Wednesday, July 2, 2014. Steverson, Hamlin & Hilbish Funerals and Cremations, Tavares.George Edward Santman IIGeorge Edward Santman, II, 53, of Lees burg, died Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Beyers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg.IN MEMORY also was sentenced by the judge to 60 days in jail on disorderly con duct charges stemming from the same June 2 incident. Bobilya, who plead ed no contest, received the maximum sen tence on the disorder ly conduct charge and could have received a year in jail on the expo sure charge. Assistant State Attor ney Tina Smith, who prosecuted the case, said she believed the sentence was justied. Considering where he was having sex, it was the right sentence, Smith said. His alleged partner, Margaret Ann Klemm, 68, of The Villages, will have her next court hearing on the same charges in August. She remains in the Sumter County Jail with no bail because her arrest violated her probation on previous a DUI charge. The Sumter County Sheriffs Ofce received a call about 10:30 / p .m. June 2 about two peo ple having sex at the pavilion in the Lake Sumter Landing Mar ket Square of The Vil lages. When deputies arrived, Bobilya and Klemm were allegedly still having sex with their clothes partially removed. Sheriffs of cials said investigators believe the couple was intoxicated at the time. SENTENCE FROM PAGE A3 standards, the home owners associations lawyers said in a state ment. Strict enforcement of HOA rules is key to keeping communities looking nice and property values high, said Frank Rathbun, spokes man for Community Associations Institute in Falls Church, Virginia, an industry trade association. We all respect this gentlemans service to our country, but good deeds should not enable somebody to break the established rules , Rathbun said. If you make one ex ception for a veteran with a ag, then youll have to do it for some one who wants to build a treehouse above the property line for their kids, or for someone with a strong desire to paint their house a dif ferent color. The tidily dressed, silver-haired Murphrees battle over the diminutive ag dates to 2012, when he led a federal lawsuit over the matter. That lawsuit argued that the association was violating his free speech rights and the 2005 Freedom to Dis play the American Flag Act, which prohibits homeowners associa tions from restricting ag ying. The two sides settled that suit, and M urphree said he made no money he just wanted to keep the ag in his ower pot. He thought the matter was settled until two weeks later, when the HOA drafted new ower pot rules that forbade his tiny ag from being own. The ne notices started ap pearing in his mailbox again. So Murphree led a second federal law suit earlier this year. That was dismissed in March by a U.S. District Court judge who said, among other things, that it was an issue for state courts. No state lawsuit has yet been led, and Mur phrees attorney Gust Sarris said they are try ing to settle the matter with The Tides out of court before ling. If he loses his current battle against the HOA and fails to pay his nes or dues, Murphree says he could lose his home. He said he owes about $30,000 related to the challenge. The Tides has also led a lien against Mur phrees property for unpaid HOA dues the money he sent for dues was instead applied by the HOA to his ag nes and legal costs. Murphrees neighbors have largely been supportive of his ght, he said, but after visits by television crews and reporters, some wish he would just y the ag according to the rules. But Murphree be lieves hes ghting for a larger cause. This is about my love and respect for the ag, he said. Theres people who strap on a gun to protect me and my family ... its a small ag but a big thank you. FLAG FROM PAGE A3 low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD. The lowTHC, high-CBD strain is purported to elim inate or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures in children with severe epilepsy. The law also allows patients who suffer from severe muscle spasms or cancer to be put on a compassionate use registry for the lowTHC product as long as their doctors approve. The Florida law also requires that cultivation, processing and distribution of the nal product take place at the same locations and allows for one dis pensary in each of ve different regions of the state. Growers are lim ited to nurseries that have been doing busi ness in Florida for at least 30 years and are producing at least 400,000 plants. Currently, 41 nurseries meet that crite ria, including three in Lake County, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Its not clear how many of these 41 businesses would want to participate. Those eligible in Lake County are: % en Jons Nursery Inc., 24546 Nursery Way, Eustis. % en McCrorys Sunny Hill Nursery, 35152 La Place Court, Eustis. % en Transplant Growers, P.O. Box 1508, Sor rento. If there is more than one applicant within a region, a public lot POT FROM PAGE A3 tery will be held to deter mine the order in which applications are considered, according to the draft rule. The rst complete application that meets all of the eligibil ity requirements would be the winner. The chosen dispensa ry would have 30 days to pay $150,000 for a li cense and post a $5 mil lion performance bond. If the applicant fails to meet the nancial obli gations, the department would start the selection process over again. Applicants would have 10 days to apply once the rule goes into effect, a short window of time for those trying to break into the states newest regulated industry. Under the rule, dispensaries would have to be open a minimum of 30 hours per week and operate between 7 / a.m. and 10 / p.m. And the rule would also bar sales of any edible products like cookies or candy. Applicants would also have to provide doc umentation that they have the ability to obtain the premises, resources and personnel necessary to operate as a dis pensing organization, including maps showing the location of facilities; site plans drawn to scale of the cultivation, processing and dispensing areas; and photographs showing the parking lot and entryways into the building. Also, applicants would be required to include a list of staff members, who must all be over the age of 21, and prove that they have passed back ground screenings. The application must also include proof that in dividuals who are own ers have passed background screenings. According to the pro posed rule, the depart ment could refuse to renew a license if a dis pensary is within 500 feet of a school that ex isted before the organization submitted its ini tial application. Any sample that has more than .8 percent THC or less than 10 per cent CBD would have to be reported immediate ly to law enforcement ofcials.

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Findoutmore in formationonlineat r f n r f rnt f b nrntn NEWLOCATION:MidFloridaEyeCenter The Vi llages/SantaFeCrossing 8630E.CR466,Suite A SantaFeCrossing ProfessionalCenter CR466 441 27 MORSEBLVD. BUENAVISTABLVD. ROLLINGACRESRD. rf fr n tr r b t r n n r f f f n f t b f f f b f f nf f f f fb f rf f t r f rf ntbt r f r n tn bt f r fnt b t r t t r bbb f f b ft f affected by this project include Sixth Avenue from between Donnelly and Baker Street to between Tremain and Grandview Street, Seventh Avenue from Baker Street to between Tremain and Grandview Street, Eighth Avenue between Baker Street and Tremain Street, Baker Street from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue, and Tremain Street partially between Eighth and Ninth Avenue, according to the release. Its been needed for a while, Se nior said. Its essentially to help with drainage and ooding and also to pro tect the lake because its storm water so its going to catch all that runoff. Elizabeth Evans Park at the end of Donnelly Street is being made into an event space and previously had ooding issues, Senior said. The improvements make the space more solid and will give it more electrical capabilities, she said, noting an events pad was also recently added there. Parking was added in the middle of Edgerton Court, the road leading to the park, and when more parking is completed it will give the park 26 additional spaces, Parks and Recreation Director Roy Hughes said. The majority of the work there is done, but other parking and more aesthetic work, which will be n ished around mid-July, still needs to be done, according to Hughes and Se nior. Work, which Senior said will be done before October, is also taking place on Tremain Street from 5th Av enue to Lincoln Avenue to turn the streets southbound lane into a pedes trian and bicycle path. PROJECTS FROM PAGE A3 The Lake County Property Appraisers eFile application for homestead exemptions, launched only seven months ago, is proving extremely popu lar among new home owners. Only 19 of Floridas 67 appraisers currently offer an eFile app, according to a press release from Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker. Among county ap praisers nation-wide, breaking 50 percent with an online product seems to be an industry benchmark, he said. We hit 54 percent intake using eFile in our rst 10 weeks. Weve now inched up to 56 percent. For many appraisers, breaking the 50 percent mark has taken several years and some still havent been able to hit the mark, Baker said in the release. Homestead exemption offers up to $50,000 off the assessed value of a home and protects it against future spikes in value with a 3 percent cap in assessed value. According to Baker, nearly 2,000 Lake County property owners have led electronically for the exemption so far this year. We track the app using Google Analytics; from this, we can tell the aver age time it takes a home owner to le is less than 11 minutes, he said in the release Without ever leaving the comfort of home, folks are saving on average $750 a year in property taxes using eFile. Bakers eFile applica tion caught the eye of the Florida Department of Revenues Property Tax Oversight Division, which recently invited him to speak on the success of Lake Countys eFile app to other county property appraisers attending an educational workshop in St. Augustine. There were about 40 other county proper ty appraisers in attendance, Baker said. Since the presentation, several have contacted my ofce for detailed discussion and advice on how to implement a similar app or how to make their existing app more successful. They have been very complimentary of what weve accomplished. Information on home stead exemption and all other exemptions is available at www.lcpa. org or by calling 352-2532150.TAVARESProperty Appraisers e-file app popular with homeowners EMERY P. DALESIOAssociated PressKILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. A strength ening Hurricane Ar thur forced thousands of vacationers on the North Carolina coast to abandon their Inde pendence Day plans while cities farther up the East Coast resched uled reworks displays threatened by rain from the storm. After passing over or near North Carolina early Friday, Hurricane Arthur was expected to weaken as it travels northward and slings rain along the East Coast. The annual Boston Pops Fourth of July concert and reworks show was rescheduled for Thursday because of potential heavy rain from Arthur, while re works displays in New Jersey and Maine were postponed until later in the weekend. Forecasters expect Arthur to strengthen to a Category 2 storm with winds of 96 mph or more by the time it passes early Friday over or near the Out er Banks a 200-mile string of narrow barrier islands with about 57,000 permanent residents. We dont know for sure if the exact cen ter of Arthur is going to pass over land or not. The chances have been increasing for that to occur with the last couple of forecasts. But even if the exact cen ter doesnt go over you, you will experience impacts tonight. The weather is going downhill in North Carolina, even as we speak, said Rick Knabb, the director of the U.S. Nation al Hurricane Center in Miami. The islands are susceptible to high winds, rough seas and road-clogging sands, prompting an exodus that began Wednesday night.Hurricane Arthur nears North Carolina coastline

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A6 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 FLStateCertified 1118S.14thSt.(U.S.27),Leesburg,FLTo See Ou r Wo rkVisitUsAtwww.lakesquare .in fo rffntbb nfbn f nn n bft f nf fb f tCustom Screen Doorsandmore... RYAN LUCAS and BRAM JANSSENAssociated PressBAGHDAD With large parts of Iraq in militant hands, a top Kurdish leader called on regional lawmakers Thursday to lay the groundwork for a referendum on independence, a vote that would likely spell the end of a unied Iraq. The recent blitz by Sun ni militants across much of northern and western Iraq has given the countrys 5 mil lion Kurds who have long agitated for independence their best chance ever to seize disputed territory and move closer to a decades-old dream of their own state. But the Kurds still face con siderable opposition from many in the internation al community, including the United States, which has no desire to see a fragmented Iraq. A Western-established noy zone in 1991 helped the Kurds set up their enclave, which has emerged over the years as a beacon of stability and prosperity, while much of the rest of the country has been mired in violence and political turmoil. The three-province territory was formally recognized as an autonomous region within Iraq following the U.S.-led inva sion in 2003 that toppled dic tator Saddam Hussein. Speaking to the region al legislature Thursday, the president of the Kurdis tan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, told law makers to set up an elector al commission to hurry up and prepare for a referen dum on self-determination. We will be in a better po sition and we will have bet ter (political) weapons in our hands. But how we will do this? he said. What kind of steps will there be? For this, you have to study the issue and take steps in this direc tion. It is time to decide our self-determination and not wait for other people to de cide for us. Barzani spoke behind closed doors, but The Asso ciated Press obtained a video of his address. Kurdish leaders have threatened for years to hold an independence referendum, but those moves were often more about wresting concessions from the central government in Baghdad than a real push for statehood. The recent Sunni offensive has ef fectively cleaved the country in three, bringing the pros pect of full independence within reach. Kurdish ghters already have seized control of dis puted territory including the city of Kirkuk, a major oil hub. The Kurds say they only want to protect the ar eas from the Sunni militants. Many of the zones have con siderable Kurdish communities that the Kurds have de manded be incorporated into their territory, making them unlikely to give them up. With its own oil resources, the Kurdish region has long had a contentious relation ship with Baghdad, with dis putes over a range of issues including how to share the revenue. In May, the Kurd ish government sold oil inde pendent of the central gov ernment for the rst time, shipping about 1.05 million barrels to Turkey. In retalia tion, Baghdad stopped giv ing the Kurds the share of the central budget they are entitled to receive. The border of the Kurd ish self-rule region is anoth er point of contention. The Kurds say they have tried for years to get Baghdad to agree on where to draw the fron tier, but the central govern ment has dragged its feet. They point to a constitutional amendment requiring that Kirkuks fate be decided by referendum, but it has never been implemented. While the Sunni militants offensive may have turned the situation in the Kurds fa vor, there is still signicant opposition to changing the status quo. Kurdish independence is opposed by the U.S., as well as by Iraqs regional neighbors, Turkey and Iran both of whom have large Kurdish minority populations. Iraq is divided. We have got a new reality, Fuad Hus sein, the chief of staff to Bar zani, told reporters Thursday. He was in Washington to update senior Obama admin istration ofcials on Kurdish aspirations for self-determi nation. DAVID MCHUGHAssociated PressKIEV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shook up his faltering military Thursday, ap pointing a new defense minister and top gen eral while speaking an grily about the years of decay and corruption that left the forces un able to deal effective ly with the well-armed eastern insurgency. His tougher tone, analysts say, reects pub lic pressure to contin ue the ght against the insurgents in the regions bordering Russia even with a rick ety military thats had little success. Poroshenko denounced the complete collapse of the govern ments ability to supply the armed forces in a sometimes angry, nger-wagging speech in parliament. He won quick approval for his choice of former top police ofcial Valery Heletey as defense minister, replacing Mikhailo Koval. He also tapped Lt. Gen. Viktor Muzhenko as chief of the militarys general staff and Yury Kosyuk, an agriculture magnate and one of Ukraines richest men, to oversee defense is sues in the presiden tial administration and to help purge the army of thieves and grafters. Accusations of corrup tion have been rife as Kievs operation against the rebels continues. Today the revival of the army is start ing from scratch, an army which is capable of ghting and win ning, Poroshenko said in parliament. Poroshenkos shakeup underscores the complex job he faces of making peace overtures and at the same time suppressing the insur gency that threatens to tear his country apart or create a permanent twilight zone beyond gov ernment control. Other pressures come from outside: Ukraine and the West say Russia is helping arm the reb els and letting its citi zens cross the border to ght, while key allies France and Germany are pushing Poroshen ko to pursue talks over attacks. MIKE SCHNEIDERAssociated PressORLANDO Since the release of a highly-critical documentary last year, SeaWorld Entertainment has been condemned by animal rights activists distressed over the condition of its killer whales. But annu al survival rates for some of the most common marine mammals in cluding killer whales at SeaWorlds three parks are near the top of all U.S. parks and aquari ums, an analysis of ve decades of federal data by The Associated Press showed. SeaWorlds survival rates for bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions actually exceed es timates for those in the wild. Breakthroughs in training and medicine that allow the parks medical staffs to per form far fewer stressful or invasive procedures are partly responsible for those successes, SeaWorld ofcials said. Decades ago, an evaluation of a marine mammal at a SeaWor ld park might require a pool to be drained for an X-ray or the animal to be restrained. No lon ger. Through behavior al training, and bribes of herring and salmon, the marine mammals at SeaWorld parks have learned to give breath, urine and blood samples on cue. Dolphins are trained to keep their heads out of the water so endoscopes can be passed into the stomach for a look. An elaborate laboratory on SeaWorld grounds allows samples to be evaluated immediately. We do a lot of self-cri tiquing of who is doing what, how, said Todd Robeck, vice president of reproductive research at SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc., which is the largest holder of marine mammals in the Unit ed States. How are you handling food? How are you handling your moms and calves? What is the medical care? Killer whales born in captivity at SeaWor ld parks have a survival rate nearly equal to their counterparts in the wild, according to APs analy sis of data from the fed eral Marine Mammal Inventory Report. How ever, the survival rate of all SeaWorlds orcas, in cluding those captured in the oceans, is lower than estimates of those living in the wild. While the surviv al rates have steadi ly improved over the past ve decades, they dont speak to the quality of life that whales, dol phins and sea lions have at SeaWorld parks. Crit ics say keeping intelli gent marine mammals in captivity is inhumane and detrimental to their well-being. Last years documentary, Blacksh, explored what may have driven a killer whale named Tilikum to kill veteran SeaWorld train er Dawn Brancheau in 2010. The documentary argued that killer whales in captivity become more aggressive to hu mans and to each other. Several entertainers, including Willie Nel son, Heart and Trisha Yearwood, pulled out of planned SeaWorld per formances, and opponents have been protesting regularly outside SeaWorlds Orlando park. SeaWorld continues to exploit these complex and very socially interactive animals, said Bryan Wilson, a coordinator for the Animal Rights Foun dation of Florida, during a recent protest. AP calculated survival rates for killer whales, bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions and beluga whales at more than 170 U.S. parks and aquariums. Animals younger than a year old werent included be cause of the difculty of making comparisons in the wild at that age. MALCOLM RITTERAP Science WriterNEW YORK Wouldnt you love to escape this busy world and just spend some time alone with your thoughts? Maybe not, says a study of volunteers who actually tried it. Some even started giving them selves electric shocks as the min utes ticked by. I think many of them were try ing to shock themselves out of boredom, said psychologist Tim othy Wilson of the University of Virginia. Its just a sign of how difcult (being alone with ones thoughts) can be for people.... This isnt something that most people nd really enjoyable. At least, thats the case for peo ple not trained in techniques like meditation, Wilson and co-au thors say in a paper released Thursday by the journal Science. In a series of experiments, col lege students left their cellphones and other distractions behind and spent six to 15 minutes alone in a sparsely furnished room on campus. The experience was not exactly heaven. On a 9-point scale of en joyment, their average rating was about in the middle. And about half the participants gave it a rat ing at the half-way mark or below. The most startling experiment involved the electric shock. Stu dents rst shocked themselves in the ankle and rated how unpleasant that was. Once they were left alone, 12 of 18 men and six of 24 women shocked themselves again.Iraqi Kurdish leader call for independence AP FILE PHOTOKurdish regional President Massoud Barzani listens to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting at the presidential palace in Irbil, Iraq. Study shows some SeaWorld mammals survive longer in captivity AP FILE PHOTO SeaWorld trainer Ryan Faulkner, left, with killer whale Melia and Michelle Shoemaker, right, with killer whale Kayla work on a routine for a show at the theme park in Orlando. Ukraines president shakes up militaryScientists find that just thinking by yourself isnt much fun

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A7 561SalonMarlenesHairFullServiceSalon352-343-3663 Color,HairCut& Conditioner Reg.$7500Now$5500LadysHairCut Reg.$2000Now$1200CallLillytoschedule oneofthesespecials Affordable~Seniors We lcome AskAboutOurPer man entMake-UpSpecials! Marlenesrfnt DollarStore b nttSouthridgePlaza www.dailycommercial.comDiversions352-365-8208 features@dailycommercial.com BRIDGE How to play: Fill in the blank squares with the numbers 1 through 9 so that each horizontal row, vertical column and nine-square sub-grid contains no repeated numbers. Puzzles range in difculty from one to six stars. The solution to todays puzzle will be in tomorrows paper.YESTERDAYS SOLUTION Today is Friday, July 4, the 185th day of 2014. There are 180 days left in the year. This is Independence Day. Todays Highlight in History : On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Fri day, July 4, 2014: This year you see a situation far differently. Your willingness to adjust and change direction allows more positive happenings to occur. You also are likely to see far more money make its way into your bank account. If you are single, you could meet someone special at any point, starting right now. Though this person might not be Mr. or Ms. Right, you will enjoy your time together. If you are attached, the two of you will make a major purchase together. Detach more often, rather than get into arguments. LIBRA is always gracious. ARIES (March 21-April 19) Youll have a spring in your step as you greet the day. A confrontation with someone could mar the moment, if you let it. A loved one might need a certain amount of support and feedback. Be careful, as this person tends to be needy. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Youll wake up and realize what you need to do. Detach, and you will see how you can enjoy yourself more. You could discover that others will be happy to pitch in. Recognize what is going on with a friend. Check in with this person. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Your imagination could support you in becoming the center of the party or barbecue. Your sense of humor will come out when dealing with friends and loved ones. How you handle a problem could determine how the rest of the day goes. CANCER (June 21-July 22) You might want to see a situation differently from how others see it. Be aware of how much of it is fantasy and how much is reality. Distorting a situation ultimately could cause a problem. Surround yourself with music and people. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You could be more in touch with your feelings than you realize. Understand your limits within your immediate circle. Try to work through an issue. Check out several parties, if thats what you want to do. Enjoy old friends, but have fun making new ones, too. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You might want to indulge a friend or loved one for no other reason than its what you want to do. Youll enjoy just watching the other partys reaction. Do not hesitate to stop at a barbecue or two and visit with friends and family members. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Your smile and caring will light up a loved ones face. You could have a similar reaction from your friends as well. Dote on all the people you want to dote on. Maximize the moment. Avoid get ting into a tiff with a loved one. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Know when to pull back and relax. Your life seems to move at such a hectic pace that you have difculty slowing down at times. Take today for you. Dont feel pressured to do anything you do not want to do. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21) Try to use today to eliminate potential reworks between friends. Go through the holiday barbecue routines. A loved one might do everything he or she can to get your attention. Let it happen; meanwhile, enjoy your friends. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19) Others are likely to seek you out and ask you to join them for an adventure. Be willing to drop in, but also make it a point to follow your familys Fourth of July traditions. A conversation could become nothing less than awkward. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18) You will want to be more forthright about a problem you are dealing with. You might think that others are causing you this issue. Take an overview, and you will see a much different scenario. Get out and see friends who usually are not around. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Deal with key people directly. That extra effort will make all the difference in what goes on. Relate on an individual level, and youll bypass a problem. Laughter suddenly could erupt. The unexpected plays a signicant role in the day. HOROSCOPES TODAY IN HISTORYDEAR ABBY: Two years ago I was involved in an unhealthy relationship for me and my children. Despite what every one said, I gave him the benet of the doubt. He ended up assaulting me and my kids. For two months I struggled with depression, and I admit I wasnt the responsible parent I should have been. Child Protective Services took the children. I hold myself accountable for my actions and my failure. My parents are angry with me because of poor choices I made in the past and treat me like the black sheep of the family. Granted, my mother, brother and I all have issues stemming from the past, but Im tired of playing the guilt card, tired of playing the victim and tired of not having my family back me up at a time when I need their support to regain custody of my kids. I miss my family and what good times we did have. How do I even begin to put the pieces back together on a very broken family? THE BLACK SHEEP DEAR BLACK SHEEP: Fix ing your broken family is something all of you must be willing to work on together, or it wont be successful. Because your mother and brother are unwilling, what you need to do is start xing yourSELF. Regaining custody will depend upon your ability to establish your independence, support your children and yourself nancially, and start counseling to deal with your issues so you wont get into another destructive, abusive relationship. It will take work and time, but if you can do it and I think you can your mother and brother will respect you for it. And you will be stronger and healthier because you will no longer be because you will no longer be so needy. DEAR ABBY: I have been dating Gene for three years, living together for a year and a half. Were both divorced and love each other very much. Our biggest problem is, he doesnt keep a normal schedule. Gene eats at odd hours, exercises at the strangest times and will stay awake til the wee hours of the morning, then crash for a day or so. He seems unfazed by this wackiness. Hes responsible, holds a good job and comes from a terrific family, but his habits are taking a toll on me. There are days when I want him home for dinner, or I want to cuddle with him. I want a nor mal schedule. This is tricky because I have accepted his lifestyle and now the brakes have come on for me. Gene doesnt understand my sudden change of atti tude, and frankly, neither do I. Do I have only two choices accept him for who he is or nd someone who follows a more conventional schedule? I love him so much that leaving would be very hard to do. WANTS A NORMAL LIFE DEAR WANTS: It would be interesting to know what Gene does for a living. Does he work in a casino? Show business? Its possible your change in attitude has come about because you now realize that you might be living his unconventional lifestyle for the rest of your life. Compromises you could make on a temporary basis can seem daunting when you see theyll be permanent. If you need someone who lives his life on a normal schedule, one of you will have to make some changes. You will either have to accept this as your future or Gene will have to change his lifestyle. Because he seems to thrive on the schedule hes living on, the adjustment may be very difcult for him. TO MY READERS: Have a happy, healthy and safe Fourth of July, everyone! LOVE, ABBYDear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www. DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.Familys anger over womans past mistakes still lingers JEANNE PHILLIPSDEAR ABBY JACQUELINE BIGARBIGARS STARS

Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A9 YOUR EDITORIAL BOARDSTEVE SKAGGS . ....................................... PUBLISHERTOM MCNIFF . .................................. EXECUTIVE EDITORSCOTT CALLAHAN . ................................. NEWS EDITORWHITNEY WILLARD . .......................... COPY DESK CHIEFGENE PACKWOOD . ..................... EDITORIAL CARTOONISTVoiceswww.dailycommercial.com The newspaper of choice for Lake and Sumter counties since 1875EDITORIALSEditorials are the consensus opinion of the editorial board, not any individual. They are written by the editorial staff but are not signed. Local editorials are published Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.COLUMNSColumns are the opinion of the writer whose byline and picture appears with them. They do not necessarily reect the opinion of the newspaper, and are chosen to represent a diver sity of views. If you would like to submit a guest column on a local, state or national issue, email your submission to letters@dailycommercial. com, or mail it to Voices, P.O. Box 490007, Leesburg, FL 347490007. Guest columns should be limited to 550 words in length. The writer also must submit a recent photo to be published with the column, as well as a brief biographical sketch.HAVE YOUR SAYThe Daily Commercial invites you to write letters to the editor. Letters should be no longer than 350 words. They must be original, signed with the full name of the writer, and include the writers address and telephone number for verication. We reserve the right to edit for length. Letters also will be edited for grammar, clarity, taste and libel. We accept no more than two letters per month from the same writer. No open letters, form letters or copies of letters to third parties will be published. We do not publish unsigned letters. Submissions are not returned. We retain the right to archive and republish any material submitted for publication.You can submit your letters by:Email (preferred) to:letters@dailycommercial.comBy regular mail to:Voices P.O. Box 490007 Leesburg, FL 34749-0007By fax to: 325-365-1951 T here are many ways to lose freedom conquering armies, surrendering with out a ght. Unfortunately, we are currently surrendering our freedom, not to a foreign power, but to our own government. The growth, reach, and cost of big government is happening before our eyes and eroding our liberty, largely because too many Americans are not familiar with the brilliant system of government our Founders established. Progressives prefer a living Constitution, which is constantly changing to conform to their ideology. What it is not is the Constitution established by the Founders. In a comprehensive publication, The Roots of Liberty: Unlocking the Federalist Papers, edited by Scott D. Cosenza and Claire M. Grifn, it attempts to remind us of the Founders intent and why their vision, if not renewed by each generation, will quickly fade, America along with it. Tim Donner, president of One Generation Away, which, according to its website, is committed to restoring, strengthening and preserving the vision of a free America by applying our founding principles to the issues of today, (and on whose board I serve as an unpaid member), published the book through its Cornerstone Project, says Roots has so far been welcomed by public and private schools in six states. For those of a certain age, The Roots of Liberty will remind us of our high school civics classes, but as government continues to expand and President Obama increasingly ignores the boundaries placed on the Executive Branch, it will serve as a needed reminder of what makes America unique in the world and how it can be quickly destroyed if sufcient attention is not paid to our founding principles. What should attract young people to The Roots of Liberty is that the editors have updated the 18th-century language, using instead paraphrases and modern words that will resonate in contemporary ears, without harming its original meaning. Heres one example: (James) Madison supported dividing the national government in a way such that each branch in and of itself would be a type of safeguard against tyranny. Because each branch of government was simultaneously separate and interdependent, it had to work together with the other branches in order to achieve the goals of the national government. And Madisons words: To what expedient then shall we nally resort for maintaining in practice the necessary partition of power among the sever al departments, as laid down in the constitution? The only answer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government, as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places. The book then succinctly lists the powers each branch of government is given in order that each branch might be a check on the other. The Founders understood that human nature had to be controlled, lest the temptations of power destroy both leader and country. Ruling by at, as President Obama seems to be doing, like vowing to accomplish immigration reform on his own, even in the face of multiple setbacks by the checking Supreme Court, is in violation of the Constitution, as one can read in this analysis of The Federalist Papers, the philosophical foundation of our constitutional government. Call it Americas DNA. In the chapter The Powers Delegated to the Federal Government Are Few and Dened, discussing the doctrine of enumerated powers, the writers say: By virtue of the doctrine, the Constitution of the United States establishes a government of delegated, enumerated and thus limited powers. Does this resemble our present government? In the foreword, the authors write: The ultimate goal of our project is to strengthen Americas civil society by helping our future leaders understand that the principles embedded in the U.S. Constitution are as relevant today as they were when the Constitution was ratied in 1789. The Roots of Liberty will remind Americans of where our country came from and where it is headed if we dont embrace the brilliance of those who bequeathed it to us.Cal Thomas latest book is What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America is available in bookstores now. Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.OTHERVOICES Cal ThomasTRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES Americas DNA: The Federalist Papers gets a modern update for new readers The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that for some businesses, religious life begins at incorporation. With a 5-4 split vote, the high court said that closely held for-prot companies could invoke First Amendment religious freedom to avoid paying for four types of contraception under the Affordable Care Act. The dissenting justices marveled at the breadth of legal implications and religious invocations this interpretation can be expected to invite. Lower courts had said the religious liberties defense by Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties did not apply to companies simply in business to make money. The court majority said that ies in the face of modern corporate law, and the rights that accrue to closely held companies with limited stock owned by a small number of people. That includes, but is not limited to, family-owned companies. This was about health care, and a womans right to all elements of that coverage and protection, including reproductive health care. This Taliban-light ruling targets females by letting employers religious values dictate what is right and proper for their female employees health care this, but not that. The majority opinion said the ruling does not provide a shield for employers who cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice. The minority hardly found any comfort in that statement. The invocation of religious offense is a litany only limited by the imagination of defense attorneys. In this case, the attorneys for the craft stores and cabinetmakers bolstered their religious argument with their interpretation that intrauterine devices and morning-after pills constituted abortion. If, as the court ruling suggests, the government could pay for contraception, why stop there? Is this a sly invitation for a Medicare-like single-payer system? That is as improbable as Congress agreeing to expand birth-control coverage. When the court talks about moving ahead without imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion, it is inviting ever more creative claims of violations. This case is an insult to women, and per sonal religious liberty. How will this license to impose ones religious beliefs on others be applied next?Provided by MCT Information Services.AVOICEJustices put mistaken faith in birth control ruling Classic DOONESBURY 1975What should attract young people to The Roots of Liberty is that the editors have updated the 18th-century language, using instead paraphrases and modern words that will resonate in contemporary ears, without harming its original meaning.

JENNA FRYERAssociated PressDAYTONA BEACH It had been 31 years since a driver won both Daytona races in the same season when Jimmie Johnson pulled off the Sprint Cup Series sweep. A year later, his teammate wants to complete the feat. But for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Coke Zero 400, he cant race the way he did at Talladega Superspeedway in May. The Daytona 500 winner went to Talladega thinking hed win another restrictor plate race, but instead n ished 26th in a performance that still haunted him Thurs day when he showed up at Daytona International Speed way. Its embarrassing man, I hate to talk about it, Earnhardt said before the rst of two practice sessions for Sat urday nights race. The way we ran and what I chose to do at the end of the race was just uncharac teristic really of anybody that is in the eld trying to com pete. I just got really frustrated with the way things were working out for us and lost sight of the overall big picture and what youre out there try ing to do and who all is out there depending on you to do what you need to do. I learned some lessons. Hell attempt to apply the lessons in the 400-miler Saturday night, where hell most likely race hard and try to lead much the same way he did when he won the season-opening Daytona 500. The February race had a frantic pace because of a rain stoppage that lasted 6 hours, 22 minutes. When the racing resumed, Earnhardt was de termined to win his second Daytona 500. Earnhardt led six times for a race-high 54 laps all after the rain delay and ended a 55-race losing streak that dat ed to 2012 with the win. But at Talladega, he wasnt at all the same racer. Earnhardt led 26 laps ear ly and gambled hed have no SPORTS EDITOR FRANK JOLLEY 352-365-8268Sportssports@dailycommercial.com B1DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014www.dailycommercial.comNBA: Owner admits errors in Kidd deal / B3 PAUL BARNEYSPORTS WRITER July Fourth was al ways my dads fa vorite holiday. If you were ever to go to one of his parties, it would be yours, too. I know its my favorite. But ever since my dads passing in 2011, Independence Day hasnt been the same. That doesnt mean Ive forgotten all the memories. The Fourth of July was no ordinary day in our house. It was tradition. It was the party of the summer, and every body we knew wanted to be a part of it. It was a continuation from my older brother Wills birthday the day before, which was sort of the pre-party. It was preparing the house a week in advance for what would be an all-day and allnight celebration. It was setting up the gazebo, tables and chairs the morning of, making sure every body who came had a place to sit, eat and talk amongst friends and family. It was stocking up on more chips, hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks and vegetable trays that could feed a family of 10 for a week. It was making the two-hour round trip to Sandusky, Ohio, and back to Cleveland to buy reworks, only to blow them up in the middle of the street. Bottle rockets, recrackers, a quar ter-stick of dynamite, a half-stick of dynamite, parachutes, Roman candles you name it, we had it. Yep, even snakes and sparklers. The neighbors across the street would sit outside in front of their house just to see our July 4th brings out mixed feelings FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writerfrank.jolley@dailycommercial.comClay Tew asked his team to have a players only meeting to decide if they wanted to win. They did and they havent lost since. Now, the Mount Dora Babe Ruth League 12-under All-Star baseball team, coached by Tew, is preparing to play in the state tournament at 11 / a.m. on J uly 10 against North Fort Myers in Palm Beach Gardens. It will mark the rst time a 12U baseball team from PHOTO COURTESY OF CLAY TEWMembers of the Mount Dora Babe Ruth 12U All-Star team pose for pictures. The will play on July 10 in the state tournament in Palm Beach Gardens. Mount Dora teams prepare for postseason tourneys BEN CURTIS / AP Eugenie Bouchard runs to play a return against Simona Halep during Thursdays womens singles seminal action at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London. HOWARD FENDRICHAssociated PressLONDON Eugenie Bouchard could have lost her focus after the fourth game of her Wimbledon seminal Thursday, when play was de layed for ve minutes during Simona Haleps medical timeout for a left ankle injury. Bouchard also could have gotten sidetracked when action was halted again, smack-dab in the middle of a tiebreaker, because an ill spectator was being attended to in the Centre Court stands. And everything really could have unraveled for Bouchard later, as she let match point after match point slip away. Able to steel herself time and again, the singular-of-pur pose Bouchard became Can adas rst Grand Slam nalist by beating French Open runner-up Halep 7-6 (5), 6-2 at the All England Club. Im able to not worry about the distractions, the 20-yearold Bouchard said. What I do well is I really dont let it get to me or affect me.Canada gets Slam finalist at WimbledonSEE BARNEY | B2SEE TEAMS | B2TERRY RENNA / APDale Earnhardt Jr. prepares to get in his car during practice on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach. Earnhardt still embarrassed over finish at TalladegaLittle E looks for sweep at Daytona to erase embarrassment FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writerfrank.jolley@dailycommercial.comThe Leesburg Light ning cant seem to get a break from Mother Na ture or the Florida Collegiate Summer League. Leesburg was tagged with another home rainout on Thursday after a torrential down pour ooded the eld as it was being pre pared for the nal game against College Park. The Lightning hope to rebound from the rainout at 6 / p .m. today when they host Winter Park at Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field in front of what is ex pected to be a capacity crowd. Thursdays rainout added to the sting the Lightning were feel ing after the FCSL an nounced the rosters for Tuesdays All-Star game. League ofcials initially placed only four play ers on the North roster for the midsummer clas sic, compared to 13 by the Sanford River Rats, the most from any of the leagues six teams. League ofcials quickly added a fth Lightning player to the roster, although that was still the fewest number of representatives from any team. The Leesburg quintet consists of Colby Lusignan, Shea Pierce, Brett Jones, Brandon Caples, and Kyle Schackne. Lees burg enters todays game with an 11-10 record. D eLand, which sports an 8-14 mark, and College Park, at 6-16, had six players apiece picked for the game. Winter Park (15-9 record) had eight representatives chosen, as did Winter Garden (13-11). FCSL ofcials said on the league website the nal rosters for the North and South teams were voted on by league coaches, staff and fans. The North team was made up of players from Leesburg, DeLand and Sanford, while the South team was created with players from Winter Park, Winter Garden and College Park. Sanford, Winter Park, DeLand, and College Park have long been owned or operated by the FCSL. Winter Garden joined the league this year. Leesburg is the only team not owned by the league.Mother Nature leaves Lightning, fans frustrated SEE NASCAR | B2SEE TENNIS | B2

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B2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 SUNmon tu es we dthursfriSatLeesburgLightningJune29-July5WinterGardenAW AY1pmCollegeParkHOME7pmCollegeParkHOME7pmCollegeParkAW AY7pmWinterParkHOME6pmWinterParkHOME7pm TENNIS Wimbledon Thursday At The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club London Purse: $42.5 million (Grand Slam) Surface: Grass-Outdoor Singles Women Seminals Petra Kvitova (6), Czech Republic, def. Lucie Safarova (23), Czech Republic, 7-6 (6), 6-1. Eugenie Bouchard (13), Canada, def. Simona Halep (3), Ro mania, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Doubles Men Quarternals Leander Paes, India, and Radek Stepanek (5), Czech Republic, def. Daniel Nestor, Canada, and Nenad Zimonjic (3), Serbia, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Vasek Pospisil, Canada, and Jack Sock, United States, def. Alexander Peya, Austria, and Bruno Soares (2), Brazil, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4. Women Quarternals Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci (2), Italy, def. Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua (6), Australia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0. Timea Babos, Hungary, and Kristina Mladenovic (14), France, def. Alla Kudryavtseva, Russia, and Anastasia Rodionova (11), Australia, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Andrea Hlavackova, Czech Republic, and Zheng Jie (9), China, def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia, and Lucie Safarova, Czech Republic, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. GOLF PGA Tour The Greenbrier Classic Thursday At The Old White TPC White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Purse: $6.5 million Yardage: 7,287; Par 70 (34-36) First Round a-denotes amateur Jonas Blixt 33-31 64 James Hahn 32-33 65 Jason Bohn 31-34 65 Joe Durant 31-34 65 Chris Kirk 32-33 65 D.A. Points 32-33 65 Patrick Rodgers 30-35 65 Jim Renner 30-35 65 Danny Lee 32-33 65 Sang-Moon Bae 34-32 66 Michael Thompson 33-33 66 Steve Stricker 34-32 66 Kevin Na 34-32 66 Troy Merritt 31-35 66 Chris Stroud 33-33 66 Pat Perez 33-33 66 Chad Collins 34-32 66 Michael Putnam 32-35 67 Davis Love III 32-35 67 Ben Curtis 34-33 67 Charles Howell III 33-34 67 Patrick Reed 32-35 67 Charlie Beljan 32-35 67 David Lingmerth 31-36 67 Tyrone Van Aswegen 32-35 67 Kevin Chappell 34-33 67 Luke Guthrie 33-34 67 Robert Allenby 32-35 67 Keegan Bradley 33-34 67 Bobby Wyatt 33-34 67 Gonzalo Fdez-Castano 31-37 68 Mark Wilson 33-35 68 Marc Leishman 34-34 68 Woody Austin 36-32 68 Scott Langley 33-35 68 Ricky Barnes 33-35 68 Robert Streb 31-37 68 John Daly 34-34 68 Brice Garnett 33-35 68 Will Wilcox 34-34 68 Jim Herman 34-34 68 Billy Hurley III 32-36 68 Tim Wilkinson 33-35 68 Camilo Villegas 32-36 68 Johnson Wagner 34-34 68 Angel Cabrera 34-34 68 J.B. Holmes 34-34 68 Bubba Watson 35-33 68 Steven Bowditch 33-35 68 David Hearn 33-35 68 Justin Hicks 33-35 68 Jamie Lovemark 35-33 68 Chad Campbell 34-35 69 James Driscoll 34-35 69 Brian Davis 34-35 69 Jeff Maggert 34-35 69 David Toms 35-34 69 Bill Haas 34-35 69 Troy Kelly 32-37 69 Trevor Immelman 33-36 69 Patrick Cantlay 33-36 69 Greg Chalmers 34-35 69 Gary Woodland 33-36 69 Stephen Ames 35-34 69 Steve Marino 33-36 69 Josh Teater 32-37 69 Bud Cauley 32-37 69 Wes Roach 35-34 69 Andrew Loupe 35-34 69 TV2DAY AUTO RACING 9 a.m.NBCSN Formula One, practice for British Grand Prix, at Silverstone, England3 p.m.FS1 NASCAR, Nationwide Series, pole qualifying for Firecracker 250, at Daytona Beach5 p.m.FS1 NASCAR, Sprint Cup, pole qualifying for Coke Zero 400, at Daytona Beach7:30 p.m.ESPN2 NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Firecracker 250, at Daytona BeachGOLF 9:30 a.m.TGC European PGA Tour, Open de France, second round, part II, at Paris12:30 p.m.TGC Web.com Tour, Nova Scotia Open, second round, at Halifax, Nova Scotia3 p.m.TGC PGA Tour, The Greenbrier Classic, second round, at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 11 a.m.MLB, WGN Chicago Cubs at Washington3 p.m.ESPN2 N.Y. Yankees at Minnesota7 p.m.ESPN Tampa Bay at Detroit FS-Florida Miami at ColoradoSOCCER NoonESPN2 FIFA, World Cup, quarternals, France vs. Germany, at Rio de Janeiro4 p.m.ESPN FIFA, World Cup, quarternals, Brazil vs. Colombia, at Fortaleza, Brazil8:30 p.m.NBCSN MLS, N.Y. at Houston11 p.m.NBCSN MLS, Portland at Los AngelesTENNIS 8 a.m.ESPN Wimbledon, mens seminals, at LondonSCOREBOARD F CSL STANDINGS W L .Pct GB Sanford 15 8 .652 Winter Park 15 9 .625 .5 Winter Garden 13 11 .542 2.5 Leesburg 11 10 .524 3 DeLand 8 14 .364 6.5 College Park 6 16 .273 8.5 THURSDAYS GAMESCollege Park at Leesburg, ccd. rain DeLand at Sanford, late Winter Park at Winter Garden, lateTODAYS GAMESWinter Park at Leesburg, 6 p.m. DeLand at College Park, 1 p.m. Sanford at Winter Garden, 1 p.m. reworks display. It was getting up ear ly the day after with a broom, dustpan and a few garbage bags to clean up those reworks. One time we lit off a 20,000-pack of recrackers. Do you know how long it takes to sweep 20,000 recrackers off the street, and not just off the street, but in our front yard and the front yard three houses down? It took about 20 minutes for them to blow up. Trafc was backed up ve cars deep waiting for it to end. Yeah, those people didnt like us too much. If youre wondering, the answer is yes. The cops were called on us quite a few times. In fact, I cant remember a time in which the cops didnt show up at our house at least once. It was going to the park just beyond our backyard to watch the reworks that were being blown off at another park a few blocks away. It was jamming out to country music that could be heard from all the way up the street. Ah, yes, I can still hear all those great tunes. Alan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn, Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw and my dads favorite George Jones. It was seeing my next door neighbor and my dads best friend, Mike, telling me to open my hands as he proceeded to drop a few packs of recrackers in them. It was laughing hysterically when a cop asked if anybody was lighting off reworks and we told him no. Sure enough, soon after we said that, you could hear Mike lighting some off in the backyard. It was watching two guys get into a Roman candle ght. It sounds exactly how you imagine it does. I wish I was making this up. Thankfully, the both of them couldnt aim. It was all me and my brothers friends coming over for Beer Olympics, where teams of two would compete in a number of games in a bracket-style format including corn hole, sticks and cups, ladder golf and KanJam all while consuming your favorite beverage. And it was watching my dad while all of this was happening. The man was a true host. He stood in front of that grill from sunrise to sunset, throwing on more hot dogs and hamburgers, and always asking if anyone wanted cheese on their burger. He made sure everyone was greeted when they ar rived and had a full stomach when they left. My dads presence is missed every day, but especially on July Fourth. To day is the rst time in my life I wont be partaking in Fourth of July festivities, but Im proud my brother has since carried on the tradition. Just like dad, he throws a great party. And even though my dad is gone, the music never stopped. Take it away, George.Paul Barney is a columnist with the Daily Commercial. Write to him at Paul.Barney@dailycommercial.com. BARNEY FROM PAGE B1 Mount Dora has played in the state tournament. These kids wanted to play for a state champion ship, said Tew. Theyve played and practiced with a lot of heart and desire and that has gotten them through districts. Im very proud of them. Tew said the team is made up of players from the leagues three 12U teams the Reds, Cubs and Braves. Players were chosen based on their in terest in playing and on the observations of coaches during the spring season. In its rst game in the district tournament in June, Mount Dora suffered a loss. Tew said he noticed a lot of heads hung low after the defeat, but he be lieved the players not the coaches needed to be the ones to decide if they had it in them to con tinue. The coaches got the players together and let them meet by themselves for about 10 or 15 min utes, Tew said. When they nished, they came back to us and said, We want to win. That was something they had to g ure out for themselves and they picked themselves back up and went back to work. Since that meeting, they havent lost. To help offset the costs of its trip down state, including food and lodging, the team has set up a site on www.gofundme.com/ Mt-Dora-12U-allstars to accept donations. As of Thursday afternoon, the team had collected $585 on the website towards its goal of $5,000. In addition, players will be at Sidelines sports bar in Mount Dora between 11 / a.m. and 2 / p .m. on Sat urday to wash cars for donations and the team will take part in a hat drop from 11 / a.m. until 2 / p .m. on Sunday at Winn-Dixie in Tavares. The Mount Dora 16U softball All-Star team won its distrct tournament and nished third at state last week in Lake City. Now, the team is preparing for the Southeast Regional tour nament in Morganton, N.C. in two weeks. Players are practicing to prepare for the tourna ment and working to raise money to pay for the trip. All donations will help pay for hotel rooms, gas, and food. Donations are being tak en at gofundme.com/axt3r8. As of Thursday after noon, the team had $45 towards its goal of $6,000. TEAMS FROM PAGE B1 PHOTO COURTESY OF MAUREEN SHORT Mount Doras 16U softball team poses for a team picture. trouble making it back through the trafc when he was shufed to the rear. When it became clear he had his work cut out for him, Earnhardt opted to take it easy and nurse his Chevrolet home for a clean nish. Fans were livid. I think I got real selsh at Talladega and what the result and how the result af fected anyone I never took into account, he said. I re ally just was out there think ing more about me and what I thought and what I wanted to do and how frustrated I was. I forgot that theres a team behind me depending on me and a lot of fans there to see us race and show up to spend their hard earned money. Denitely was a dif cult thing to go through. Earnhardt has eight wins at plate tracks four be hind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the active-driver lead and wants another win. John son, who goes into Saturday night with three wins in the last six races, believes his teammate has a shot at the sweep. Before Johnson did it last year, the last driver to sweep Daytona was Bobby Allison in 1982. If I dont have a chance to win the race, I wouldnt mind if he did, Johnson said. Hes going to be fast. Hes going to be strong and have a very good opportu nity to win. That stat went 30 years for a reason. Its not easy because in plate racing, anything can happen. Hes the one who gave me that phrase about If I make it to the white, and youre in the picture, you have a shot at winning. If he can make it to the white he will de nitely be a threat. Earnhardt is aware of the ability to sweep, and recog nizes how difcult it would be to complete. I would love to sweep the races at Daytona because that is a cool thing, but I just love winning here, he said. NASCAR FROM PAGE B1 In only her sixth major tourna ment, the 13th-seeded Bouchard will play for the championship Saturday against 2011 Wimble don winner Petra Kvitova. The sixth-seeded Kvitova defeated No. 23 Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 6-1 in the rst all-Czech womens Slam semi nal. I know how (it feels) when you hold the trophy, Kvitova said, so I really want to win my second title here, and I will do everything (so) I can. Waiting in a hallway before walking on court, Kvitova and Safarova chatted, a pair of longtime friends who train at the same club back home. From 6-all in the tiebreak er, Kvitova won 31 of 48 points the rest of the way, using her overpowering serve and forehand that work so well on grass to improve to 6-0 against Safarova. In a year that zero American men or women reached Wimbledons round of 16 for the rst time in 103 years, another Canadian, Mi los Raonic, will try join Bouchard as a nalist. The mens seminals today are old guard vs. new guard matchups: seven-time champion Roger Federer against Raonic, and top-seeded Novak Djokovic against Grigor Dimitrov. As of now, the 24-year-old Kvitova is the only man or woman born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam title. If Bouchard becomes the second, she also would be the youngest ma jor champion since Maria Sharapova was 19 at the 2006 U.S. Open. TENNIS FROM PAGE B1

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C2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 (FreeConsultation) SUMMERDENTALSPECIALSNEW PA TIENTCASHOFFER.Expires7-31-14CLEANING/EXAMS/X-RAYS-ONLY$49ExamD0140/XrayD0220/ProphyD1110 (inabsenceofperiodontaldisease)SINGLECROWN-ONLY$499rfn tbnn bnCUSTOMDENTURES(D5211ORD5212)t$550each $750each$950each$1,200eachTOOTHEXTRACTION-ONLY$175tbrrntb nnFULLSIZEDENTALIMPLANTImplant+Abutment+Crown+Exam+Xrays NOWONLY$2,300 (Reg.$3,500)MOUNTDORADENTALGROUP2390 W. OldHwy441,Ste2 MountDoraFL32757352-383-3368TheVillagesDentalCareTheVillagesNorth(Hwy441)352.753.6365 TheVillagesDentalGroupTheVillages We st(Hwy301)352.748.7645 D004210 Tu es da y Ju ly 8th,2014 at 3PM Nowhere on earth is there a more enthusias tic celebration than on the Fourth of July in a small American town. Everyone comes out for the parade and about half the citizens are in it, either marching or providing costumes or oats. When I was a little girl in North Apollo, Pa., the parade was the high point of the day. This is not to discount the excitement of setting off recrackers. My sisters and I were only allowed to have the little Lady Fingers, but we thought we were really reckless lighting those tiny explosives. Before the Fourth, our dad usually found us some punk (a piece of decayed wood that smolders when lit). He thought it was safer than lighting a match. Big brother Herb was allowed to have big recrackers. For the Fourth of July parade, all the local volunteer re departments got out their equipment and polished it until the chrome sparkled in the sunlight. They would put on their best uniforms and march behind the re truck. Usually the re chief would ride in the truck. In North Apollo, the re chief was usually my dad. Before North Apollo had its own parade we attended the parade in Apollo. I remember standing on the curb along Moore Avenue hanging on to a light pole to keep from being pushed into the street by the crowd. Every one was so excited and we all wanted to be the rst to sight the beginning of the parade. As soon as we heard that martial music we strained to see the bands marching down the street, the high stepping drum major ettes with their white tasseled boots, short skirts and hats, twirling their batons, the ag carriers, the drummers marking cadence and the smartly uniformed band playing their hearts out. Moore Avenue in those days was lined with two-story houses with porches on the second oor. I envied those folks who could sit on their second-oor porches and watch the parade without having to ght the crowd. After the parade, every one went to their homes or the groves for family picnics. There were hot dogs to roast over open res, potato salad and chocolate cake. We didnt have grills back then. We built a re in a re pit, stuck our hot dogs on sharpened sticks and roasted them in the re. We nished by roasting marshmallows. Remember how good they tasted? The nal treat of the day was the reworks display. We had a great place to watch from our front porch. The town of Vandergrift was on a hill just across the river and they put on their reworks display as soon as the sun went down. Did I mention sparklers? Each of us girls had our own box of sparklers that we guarded from our pilfering sisters. We would light them and lean over the railing and twirl them for the benet of anyone who might be walking down the street. Did we know why we were celebrating? Yes, we knew. Our teachers in the little school house on top of the hill made certain we knew that the Fourth of July was the celebration of the birthday of our country and all that it stood for. We knew about the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence. We knew how our government was structured and why. We knew that all men were created equal and that our rights were granted by God himself and that our government was supposed to ensure that those rights were given to all equally. Sometimes those that govern forget, but we dont for get. There are many who point out our warts but we know them all too well. We know the great experiment that is America would not have been possible without the shedding of innocent blood. We know that mistakes have been made and correction is sometimes costly, but the ideal of justice for all is what makes us strong. We are a country of law and we return to that rule of law when our freedoms are threatened. We have met many challenges. On July 4, 1976, our country marked her 200th birthday with many spectacular events. On Bunker Hill in Boston, Revolutionary War buffs replayed the famous battle in full uniform. A otilla of tall sailing ships made their way from Newport, R.I., to New York har bor. A cross-country wagon train made its way through South Carolina. Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, hosted a year-long party. Over Independence Hall where John Hancock signed the Declaration 200 years before, red, white and blue reworks exploded. That spirit is alive today in small-town America. Enjoy the parades, the high stepping majorettes, the reworks and remember.Nina Gilfert can be reached at ninagilfert@yahoo.com.Small towns celebrate the Fourth of July in style NINA GILFERTFROM THE PORCH STEPS SUBMITTED PHOTO The Sumter County Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting event recently celebrating the rst anniversary of Visiting Nurse Services of Central Florida in Wildwood, providing home health care, skilled nursing and physical, occupational and speech therapies. For information, call 352-748-1867.VISITING NURSE SERVICES CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY SUBMITTED PHOTO Sterling House representatives present a check to Meals on Wheels in an effort to help deliver meals to those recovering from a stay at Sterling House in Tavares. Inspired by Lynn Haynes, executive director at Sterling House, a health and wellness fair open to the public was held with 24 local community members giving funds totaling $950. MEALS ON WHEELS FUNDRAISER SUBMITTED PHOTO Congratulations to the newest members of the National Adult Education Honor Society at Lake Technical College: Supavadee Barton, Edward Bertucci, Whenzdei Bixby, Le Mac Blount, Nicholas Bolden, Mario Crespo, Shanesha Crosby, Angela Ditch, Kendricka Gaines, Alesha Garcia, Pattiann Gonzalez, Piper Halliday, Blanca Hernandez, Linda Hester, Maurice Hill, Lauren Hoffman, Ylian Johnson, Eric Mokwa, Judith Moore, Veronica Ramirez, John Raymond, Patricia Ramos, Ligia Sanchez, Jeremy Shorter, William Solis, Meenaz Thanawala, Maria Norma Valerio, Maria Vasquez, Anna Wilbur and Charlean Wilson. For information about Lake Tech, go to www.laketech.org or call 352-589-2250.ADULT EDUCATION HONOR SOCIETY WINNERS TODAYLEESBURG BASEBALL AND FIREWORKS AT VENE TIAN GARDENS: Begins at 6 p.m. with food, mu sic and baseball. Go to www.leesburgpartner ship.com. ROTARY CLUB STAR SPANGLED BANNER INDE-PENDENCE DAY PARADE IN MOUNT DORA: At 10 a.m. downtown. Parade participants should ar -rive by 9 a.m. Go to www.lakecountyrotary.org for information, or call 352-267-2879. TAVARES INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRA -TION: From 5 to 9:30 p.m., Wooton Park, 100 E. Ruby St. Entertainment and food vendors. Call 352-0742-6319, or go to www.tavares.org. EUSTIS RED, WHITE AND BLUE 4TH OF JULY CELE -BRATION: Events begin at noon and continue to 9 p.m., with live mu -sic, food, Day of Service event for military per sonnel and fireworks. Call 352-357-7969 or go to www.eustis.org for de -tails. FRIDAY NIGHT JAZZ AT THE LAKESIDE INN IN MOUNT DORA: From 7 to 10 p.m. with trio, Terry Harr on piano, Barry Smith on drums and Larry Jacoby on bass. SATURDAY PATRIOTIC FAMILY FUN DAY AT DADE BATTLEFIELD: From 4 to 8 p.m., with games and contests at 5 p.m., pet parade at 6 p.m. Music, ice cream and food available for purchase, 7200 county Road 603 in Bushnell. COMMUNITY CALENDARSEE EVENTS | C3

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL C3 Call 352-793-4781 for de -tails. LEESBURG MASONIC LODGE NO. 58 A&FM FIRST SATURDAY BREAKFAST: From 8 to 9:30 a.m., 200 Ritchey Road in Lees -burg. Cost is $6 per per son. MAXS PET CONNECTION ADOPTION EVENT: Every Saturday, PetSmart, 534 N. U.S. Highway 27/441 in Lady Lake, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 352-669-2855 for details. REGISTRATION FOR 6TH ANNUAL BACK 2 SCHOOL BASH IN WILDWOOD: From 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m., Gods Glory Ministries, 206 N. Main St., Wildwood. Free food and games. Back 2 School Bash is Aug. 2. Call 352-461-6687 for details. SUNDAYTHE SUNDAY NITE DANCE AT RECREATION PLANTATION: From 7 to 10 p.m., 609 County Road 466 and Rolling Acres Road in Lady Lake. Cost is $10. Everyone wel -come. Call 352-304-8672 for information.EUSTIS ELKS LODGE NOI. 1578 SERVE BREAK -FAST: At the lodge, 2540 Dora Ave., in Tavares. Cost is $6. Call 352-5892702. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS OPENS AT BAY STREET PLAYERS: Sun day, July 13 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for students, at the State Theatre, 109 N. Bay St., Eustis. Tickets at www.baystreetplayers.org or 352-357-7777. The show contains strong lan guage and may not be suitable for children. MONDAYMR. RICHARD PER-FORMS AT THE LIBRARY: Cool songs for kids, Leesburg Public Li -brary, 100 E. Main St., at 11 a.m. for all ages. Call 352-728-9790. MOUNT DORA BIBLE SCHOOL K-6 SOCCER SUMMER CAMP BEGINS TODAY: From 9 a.m. to noon, at the football field at the school, 301 W. 13th Ave., in Mount Dora. Cost is $65. Call 352-383-2155 for regis -tration and information. TUESDAY ART CLASSES AT LEMA: Creative Art class with Judith Langgood, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday and July 10, 15 and 17, for ages 10-13, Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 1 W. Or -ange Ave. Call 352-483-2900 for information. MAKING PRINTS WITH JENNIFER HARPER: From 12:30 to 2 p.m., today and July 10, 15, 17 for ages 10-13. Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 1 W. Orange Ave. Call 352-483-2900 for cost and information. HONORING THE 238TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST PUBLIC READING OF THE DECLARATION OF IN -DEPENDENCE: At the East Lake County Library at 6 p.m., in Sorrento, part of the adult summer reading program. Call the li -brary at 352-383-9980 for details. WEDNESDAY REGISTRATION FOR 6TH ANNUAL BACK 2 SCHOOL BASH IN WILDWOOD: From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 3 to 5 p.m. Gods Glory Ministries, 206 N. Main St., Wildwood. Free food, games and more. Back 2 School Bash takes place on Aug. 2. Call Carolyn Ford at 352-461-6687 for details. WATERCOLOR EXPLO -SION WITH JANICE ROANE: From 8:30 to 10 a.m., to -day and July 11, 16, 18, Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 1 W. Orange Ave. Call 352-483-2900 for cost and information. For kids age 10-13. ADULT COLORED PEN -CIL CLASS AT LAKE EUSTIS MUSEUM OF ART: From noon to 2 p.m., 1 W. Or -ange Ave., Eustis. Call 352-483-2900 for cost and information. NORTH LAKE COIN AND CURRENCY CLUB MEET ING: From 6 to 9 p.m., Wildwood Commu -nity Center, 6500 Powell Road. Call Don Pitcher at 352-245-5680 for details. 9945SEHwy.42,Summereld 42 4227/441SUMMERFIELD OCALATHEVILLAGES 122914thSt.,Leesburg27/441LEESBURGFRUITLAND PARK 441 HOURSMon-Sat 8to6 Sunday 9to5rf nt b WE NEEDn The sixth panel in the 40foot mural about Lees burgs history caused a bit of controversy because of its depiction of Leesburgs Watermelon Festival. The issue surfaced in January 1985, when T.H. Poole, then president of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wanted the city to remove the scene from the mural. The scene was of a black youth eating a slice of watermelon. Smith went back and replaced the scene with a composite of ve successful African Americans about two months later. According to the information accompanying the mural, Virgil Hawkins headed the committee, which suggested the image to replace the original one. The idea conveyed is that today African Americans are doctors, teachers and businessmen. Smith said when he painted the mural he didnt have the slightest idea it would offend and cause a commotion. In fact, the Leesburg Art Festival, started and run by Smith, was one of the rst art festivals to welcome black artists, according to Smith. It turned out beautifully, he said in a 1993 story a month before he died. Smith and his wife Kathryn moved to Leesburg after he retired from the advertising company. He got involved with his local community, eventually uttering words that led to the formation of the Leesburg Art Festival in 1978. Art had always been a way of life for the Father of the Leesburg Art Festival. In the 1984 story, Smith said, An artist is a little like a barber. It doesnt matter where he goes, if he knows his business, knows how to draw or letter, he can nd work. The good Lords kind of blessed me. I had a wonderful Christian mother. Ive often thought her prayers kept me out of trouble. Back to the mural. Interestingly, I never noticed until this week that the banner at the top of the panel still includes Watermelon Festival without any accompanying picture. I also nd it interesting that Leesburg folks always call it the Leesburg Water melon Festival but all the old photographs in the Florida State Archives with banners for Leesburgs festival call it Leesburgs Annual Florida Watermelon Festival. The rst Watermelon Festival was held in 1930, and continued to be held each year, interrupted only by the World War II years, until the citys centennial celebration in 1957. One of the popular features of the Watermelon Festival was the cutting of free watermelons for all visitors, supplied by area melon growers. As growth of this crop moved southward for new ground and earlier crops, it became more difcult to get watermelons, and the festival was dropped after the week-long centennial celebration. In 1961 a new Fun Festival was started, but did not gain the wide popularity of the Watermelon Festival. Leesburgs watermelon history began June 4, 1894 when G.W. Franklin, a Leesburg melon and produce buyer, shipped the rst load of watermelons out of Florida from Leesburg. About three decades later, watermelon growers decided it was time to celebrate the success of a bumper crop with Leesburgs rst Water melon Festival, held June 25, 1930. Naturally, there was a parade that year and the Coca-Cola Bottling Companys oat won rst prize. A carload of watermelons was provided by growers for the free watermelon cutting, and 1,000 melons were cut for that rst feast. The rst festival crowd drew an estimated 5,000 people. Over the years the crowds grew to about 20,000 in 1952 and an estimated 60,000 in 1958. Margaret Ekdahl of Tampa, Miss Florida in 1930, served as a judge for the rst Watermelon Queen beauty contest. Tommie Hawkins Porter was crowned the rst Watermelon Queen. The festival was put on hold after 1939 because of World War II, but Leesburg was ready for the festivals revival in 1946 after the war. Growers donated truckloads, usually after the main crop was in. They would back their trucks down in the old city ice plant by the end of Sixth Street and stack them up inside to cool them. When the festival was moved in later years to Venetian Gardens, the watermelons were kept in the wading pools. The festival program didnt vary much from year to year. It would kick off with a parade from Leesburg High School down Main Street, then Canal Street to Venetian Gardens in the later years. The watermelon-eating contest followed the bathing beauty revue. A band concert might accompany lunch, and the after noon was full of events such as boat races, baseball at Venetian Ball Park and another band concert. Variety shows or something such as the Tom Thumb Follies, would provide additional entertainment. The day would be capped off with the beauty contest, reworks and the coronation dance. Eventually, when water melon growers headed south and there werent enough melons for growers to give away free, the Watermelon Festival was replaced by the Fun Festival, which was replaced by the Leesburg Art Festival. More next week.Rick Reed is a columnist who lives in Mount Dora. To reach him, call 352-383-1458 or email him at ricoh007@aol.com.Murals panel 6 scene a source of controversy PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FLORIDA STATE ARCHIVES Panel 6 of the Leesburg Community Building mural is shown after the Watermelon Festival scene was changed. EVENTSFROM PAGE C2

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C4 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 JOE MCDONALDAssociated PressBEIJING China announced another mod est easing Thursday of its currency controls, saying banks will be al lowed to set their own exchange rates in dealings with customers. The change adds to a series of moves aimed at making Chinas gov ernment-controlled nancial system more market-oriented and efcient. The United States and other countries have criticized Beijings controls on the yuan, also called the renminbi. They say the government-set exchange rate is too low, giving Chi nese exporters an un fair price advantage and hurting foreign competitors. Under the rule change, banks allowed to handle foreign cur rency can set exchange rates for the renminbi by themselves for customers based on market demand and price-setting ability, the Chinese foreign currency regulator said in a state ment. Until now, Beijing has set an exchange rate for the yuan each day and then allowed it to uc tuate in a narrow band against the U.S. dollar and other currencies in tightly controlled trad ing. In March, that band was widened, though to only 2 percent. Under the latest change, banks that make a prot by buy ing foreign currencies at one price and selling at another could of fer some customers a better deal by narrow ing the margin between those two levels. The regulators statement gave no indication whether they would be allowed to go outside the state-set trading band or by how much. The countrys top economic ofcial, Premier Li Keqiang, promised in an annual policy speech in March to give market forces a decisive role in allocating credit and other resources in the state-dominated economy. CURRENCIES Dollar vs. Exchang e Pvs Rate Day Yen 102.20 101.82 Euro $1.3609 $1.3656 Pound $1.7151 $1.7163 Swiss franc 0.8934 0.8891 Canadian dollar 1.0634 1.0666 Mexican peso 12.9573 12.9952 Businessaustin.fuller@dailycommercial.com 352-365-8263 DOW JONES 17,068.26 + 92.02 NASDAQ 4,485.93 + 28.2 S&P 500 1,985.44 + 10.82 GOLD 1,330.90 --SILVER 21.20 + 0.125 CRUDE OIL 103.75 0.73T-NOTE 10-year2.65 + 0.02 X www.dailycommercial.com KEN SWEETAP Markets WriterNEW YORK The Dow Jones industrial average topped 17,000 for the rst time Thursday, the indexs rst big 1,000-point mile stone this year, following news that hiring in the U.S. accelerated last month. The market rose from the start of trading after the government reported that U.S. employers hired more employees than investors and economists expected. Trading was extremely light, though, and the mar ket closed early ahead of the Fourth of July holiday Friday. Thursdays gains add to what has been a strong month-and-a-half for Wall Street. Along with the Dow hitting 17,000, the Standard & Poors 500 index is ap proaching its own milestone of 2,000. The indexes have risen as a steady stream of good news on jobs and man ufacturing bolsters investor condence. Right now the story is on ward and upward, said Neil Massa, senior trader at John Hancock Asset Management. The Dow rose 92.02 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,068.26. The S&P 500 rose 10.82 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,985.44 and the Nasdaq composite rose 28.19 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,485.93. Investors were encouraged by the latest jobs report from the Department of Labor, which showed U.S. employers added 288,000 workers to their payrolls in June, far more than forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent. The government also said employers hired more people in previous months than reported earlier: 217,000 in May and 304,000 in April. The U.S. economy is now creating around 231,000 jobs each month in 2014, compared to roughly 194,000 a month last year. It topped even some of the most optimistic of fore casts, Massa said. The jobs report is the lat est piece of data to show the U.S. economy continues to steadily improve. On Wednesday, the payroll pro cessor ADP said private busi nesses added 281,000 jobs in June, up from 179,000 in May. Also this week the Insti tute for Supply Management said the U.S. manufacturing sector expanded for the 13th consecutive month. While the Dows passing of 17,000 is a notable milestone, most Wall Street professionals dont focus on it. The vast majority of mutual funds and investors use the broad er S&P 500 index as their benchmark for how they are performing. In fact, the Dow has lagged behind the rest of the stock market this year. The index is up 3 percent in 2014 compared with the S&P 500s rise of 7.4 percent. That said, investors should be feeling good about Dow 17,000, Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist with Wells Fargo Advisors, wrote in a note to investors. The stock market has more than recovered from levels seen during the nancial crisis more than ve years ago. Slow and steady can win the race; and it has. The Dows 17,000 mile stone is another reminder of its bull market run. The in dex has climbed more than 10,500 points since its Great Recession low of 6,547.05 on March 9, 2009. Among individual stocks, the pet supply chain PetSmart rose the most in the S&P 500 on Thursday. PetSmart gained $7.48, or 13 percent, to $67.28 after the activist investor rm Jana Partners disclosed a 9.9 per cent stake in the company. Investors sold bonds after the strong jobs report. The yield on the 10-year Trea sury note rose to 2.64 per cent from 2.63 percent late Wednesday. Bond yields rise when prices fall. Thursday was the slow est trading day of the year for stocks. Roughly 1.9 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Ex change. U.S. markets will be closed today for the Fourth of July holiday. U.S. stock trading will reopen Monday.Dow 17,000: Index hits new milestone RICHARD DREW / APFireworks frame representatives of Macys as they ring the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped above 17,000 for the rst time Thursday after the government reported a surge in hiring last month that was much bigger than investors and economists were expecting. China eases banking controls Associated PressLOS ANGELES Amazon says that it is prepared to go to court against the Federal Trade Commission to defend itself against charges that it has not done enough to prevent children from making unauthorized in-app purchases. The FTC alleged in a draft lawsuit released by Amazon that unauthorized charges by children on Amazon tablets have amounted to millions of dollars. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. said in a letter Tuesday to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez that it had already refunded money to parents who com plained. It also said its parental con trols go beyond what the FTC required from Apple when it imposed a $32.5 million ne on the company in Janu ary over a similar matter. Amazons Kindle Free Time app can limit how much time children spend on Kindle tablets as well as require a personal identication number for inapp purchases, said Amazon spokesman Craig Berman. Parents can say at any time, for every purchase thats made that a PIN is required, he said. By not agreeing to a settlement with the FTC, the company faces a poten tial lawsuit by the FTC in federal dis trict court.Amazon vows to fight FTC over how it handles childrens in-app purchases

Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL D1 DAY, MONTH XX, YEAR DAILY COMMERCIAL XX 2255GENERAL EMPLOYMENTPUBLISHER'S NOTICEFederal and State laws prohibit advertising expressing a discriminatory preference on the basis of race, age, sex, color, national origin, religion, handicap or marital status. The Daily Commercial will not knowingly accept advertisement for employment which is in violation of the law. Employment Advertising Standards of Acceptance Employment Classifications are intended to announce bona de employment offers only. Employment advertising must disclose the specic nature of the work being offered. Some employment categories may charge fees. If any advertiser does not comply with these standards, please notify a Classied Sales Representative at 365-8245 or 365-8200. r f n trfn b rfr nrtbtf

E2 SOUTH LAKE PRESS Wednesday July 2, 2014 / DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 MorrisRealtyandInvestments Pe nnbrookeCo me se e th is be au ti fu l Pe nn br oo ke Fa ir ways home is th re e be dr oo m tw o ba th Ve niceo or pl an has a sp lit pl an des ign an d has be en ext re mel y we ll ke pt Yo u wi ll en jo y be au ti fu l br eez es on th e sc re en ed po rc h ov er lo ok in ga lu sc io us ga rd en an d be au ti fu l pl an ts. In side th e mas te r is t fo ra Ki ng wi th la rge cl osets,do ub lesinks,aga rd en tu b an d se pa ra te sh ow er. e tw o ca rgara ge has an addi ti on al golf ca rt gara ge wi th se pa ra te en tr an ce an d do or .En te rt ai nin th e fo rm al dining or ha ve a ca su al me al in yo ur bre akf as t no ok .is home is excep ti on al .$165,000 G4706229 Ca ll Le na Wi ll ia ms at 352-636-4488.Yo uwillenjoybeautifulbreezesonthescreenedpor ch CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MARTIN CRUTSINGERAP Economics WritersWASHINGTON When the government updates its estimate Wednesday of how the U.S. economy fared last quarter, the number is pret ty sure to be ugly. Horrible even. The economy likely shrank at an annual rate of near ly 2 percent in the Janu ary-March quarter, economists estimate. That would be its bleakest performance since early 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession. So why arent economists, businesses or investors like ly to panic? Because most agree that the economy last quarter was depressed by temporary fac tors particularly the blast of Arctic chill and snow that shuttered factories, disrupted shipping and kept Amer icans away from shopping malls and auto dealerships. Since then, the picture has brightened. Solid hir ing, growth in manufactur ing and surging auto sales have lifted the economy at a steady if still-unspectacular pace. That said, sluggish pay growth and a stumbling housing rebound have restrained the expansion. But the economys recovery con tinues. We had a very bad rst quarter, but the rst quar ter is history, says Craig Alexander, chief economist at TD Bank. It doesnt tell you where the economy is go ing, which is in a direction of more strength. Wednesdays report will be the governments third and nal estimate of the econ omys rst-quarter perfor mance. Here are ve reasons economists are looking past last quarters dismal showing and ve reasons the econ omy still isnt back to full health.HIRING IS ROBUSTIf the economy really was tumbling back into reces sion, youd see businesses laying off workers or at least clamping down on hir ing. That isnt happening. Employers are adding jobs at the fastest pace in 15 years. Thats a pretty clear sign that they see last quarters troubles as temporary. And lay offs are down. The number of people seeking unemploy ment benets, a proxy for layoffs, has fallen 10 percent since the rst week of Janu ary.WINTER BLASTWith summer in full swing, it might be hard to remem ber the brutal winter. But the cold damaged the econo my last quarter. Spending on autos, furniture, clothes and other goods rose at the slow est pace in nearly three years. With snow blanketing building sites, home construction plummeted in January. Al exander estimates that win ter weather slowed economic activity by about 1.5 percent age points on an annual basis. Yet the impact didnt re ect fundamental problems in the economy. Americans who postponed car pur chases during winter simply bought cars during spring in stead. Auto sales jumped to a nine-year high in May.CLEARING OUT STOCKPILESAnother drag on growth last quarter was probably also temporary: Companies sharply cut back on their restocking of goods. That wasnt unexpected. It occurred after companies had aggressively ramped up restocking in the second half of last year. The slowdown in the January-March quar ter reduced annual growth by 1.6 percentage points, the government said. With growth strengthening since spring began, businesses are restocking at a faster rate again. Inventories grew 0.6 percent in April, the most in six months.HEALTH CARE COMPLICATIONSLast quarters economy will look bleak in part because the government needs to cor rect a mistaken assumption. It previously gured that health spending soared last quarter after many Americans obtained insurance on the Obama administrations health care exchanges. But when data was released this month, there was no sign of such additional spending. As a result, consumer spending probably grew at a 2.3 percent annual rate last quarter, not the 3.1 percent previously estimated, according to JPMorgan Chase. Consumers have accelerated spending since then: Re tail sales surged in March by the most in four years and again in April and May, boosted by auto purchases. This month, consumer con dence reached a six-year high. Thats a hint that spend ing will further strengthen.MANUFACTURING GAINSAfter slipping in the rst quarter, partly because of weather-related disruptions, Why a grim US economic picture is brightening AP FILE PHOTO In this March 21 photo, snow partially covers the ground where a single family housing construction is underway in North Andover, Mass. MARTIN CRUTSINGERAP Economics WriterWASHINGTON The Obama administration is extending for another year a program aimed at helping people struggling to avoid fore closure on their homes, Treasury Secretary Ja cob Lew said Thursday. He said the adminis tration is also expanding an effort to increase ac cess to affordable rent al housing. In addition, it is launching an effort to revive the portion of the mortgage market backed by private industry. Families and neighborhoods across the country continue to recover from the nan cial crisis and we must not lose our resolve to help them, Lew said at a conference marking the fth anniversary of the governments mortgage program. Lew said the Home Af fordable Modication Program had provid ed relief to more than 1.3 million homeowners who have been able to permanently modify their mortgages, saving them $540 per month on average in their mort gage payments. He said the extension of the pro gram would last at least until Dec. 31, 2016, allowing the administration to continue assisting homeowners facing foreclosure and those whose homes are under water, with mortgages larger than the current value of the home. Lew said that the governments mortgage-support efforts had served as a model for the mortgage industry on how to restructure loans and help homeowners. He said the Treasury Department and the Department of Hous ing and Urban Develop ment are joining efforts to support nancing of FHA-insured mortgages for construction and renovation of rent al housing. He said the rst effort would help re store affordable housing damaged by Superstorm Sandy in Far Rocka way, New York. Ofcials said the program would boost construction and renovation of apartment projects by signicant ly reducing the inter est rates charged on the projects.Lew announces expanded housing support programs AP FILE PHOTO Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew testies before a House Financial Committee hearing in Washington on May 9. Fred Slotnick, a resident of Florida for more than 35 years, has a long history of working in real estate sales and marketing with more than 40 years of experience. He began his career in Rochester, N.Y., and moved to Florida in 1973. He joined the real estate industry in 2003 and continues to work in the industry today. Slotnick joined Steve Stifer to form Home Watch of The Villages, offering seasonal and vacation home watch needs for residents in Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, and recently received accredited member status with the National Home Watch Association for the second consecutive year. The National Home Watch Association was formed in 2009, offering the highest industry standards for home watch and absentee homeowner services throughout the United States and Canada.SUBMITTED PHOTOSLOTNICK GAINS ACCREDITED MEMBER STATUS IN THE NHWA Hold-Thyssen commercial real estate, based in Winter Park with ofces in Tampa and Nashville, has hired Christy Sharrer as a marketing assistant in the Winter Park ofce. R. Anthony Fisher, vice president of Hold-Thyssen Inc., said Sharrer has more than eight years of experience in customer service. She holds a technical certicate in graphic design production and will receive her A.S. degree in graphic design from Seminole State College in July. In her new role as marketing assistant, Sharrer will assist the Hold-Thyssen marketing team with production of marketing materials and marketing communications.SUBMITTED PHOTOHOLD-THYSSEN NAMES NEW MARKETING ASSISTANTSEE ECONOMY | E4

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SOUTH LAKE PRESS Wednesday July 2, 2014 / DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 E3 THELIFEYOUVE WA ITEDYOURWHOLELIFEFOR! SomethingforEveryone!!LetUsFind Yo urDreamHome!SEASONAL&LONGTERMRENTALS AVA ILABLE rYAPPT. 25327USHwy.27Ste.202,Leesburg,Fl.34748(352)326-3626~(800)234-7654www .PALREAL TY .net STARTLIVINGTHELIFE!WESTWOODSUB!Builtin2005,4 bedrooms,2baths, nicebackyard.IN GROVELAND,FNMA OWNED. Mid100s#G4800429 CONSERV AT ION VIEWS!Customsplit3BD/2BA, granitecountertops, doublegarage,OVERSIZED PA TIO! 260s#G4700600 PepTalk......isaweeklyfeatureintheFriday RealEstateSection.Itsavailablefor yourPressReleases,Educational Milestones,OfceOpenings,and otherpertinentannouncements fortherealestateindustry. Pleasesendyourinformationto:RealEstate@DailyCommercial.comtohaveyourinformationconsidered forthissection.Photoswelcome.(People,Places&Events) Its summertime in Cen tral Florida, and in a mat ter of minutes the weather can go from hot and sunny to stormy with the tempera ture dropping 25 degrees. Extreme weather chang es are rough on your roof and, according to Mike Cur ry of Currys Roong, most homeowners have no idea until its too late. Curry says, The hot temperatures on the roof cause shingles and ashing to expand, and with an afternoon thunderstorm there is sudden cooling, which creates contraction. This continuous expansion and contraction on the roof can create leaks over time. The other big factor when it comes to hot temperatures on a roof has to do with poor ventilation. Many homeowners are unaware that a good roof starts with a well-ventilated attic. Ridge and off-ridge vents coupled with soft and gable louvers are essential in funneling rising hot air out of the attic. Attics that are not well ventilated during the scorching temperatures of summer become skillets for roof shingles. Brittle and curling roof shingles are visual indicators of a poorly ventilated attic. Hailstorms are a residential roofs silent killer. Hail typically forms in larger thunderstorms as winds rotate in the upper atmosphere, dropping from thousands of feet above the ground. Hail can form any where from the size of a pea up to that of a softball, with most hail being somewhere just under the size of a mar ble. Hail can structurally damage a berglass asphalt shingle roof as well as ding up a metal roof. Hail damage to a ber glass asphalt shingle roof usually manifests in a loss of granules from the shingle because the smashing hail will literally detach the protective granules from the asphalt/berglass base. According to Curry, homeowners of a hail-damaged roof will begin to see colored roong granules in gutters and where water runs off the roof. Hail damage is a silent roof-killer because the granule loss may continue for months before being noticed. By the time it is discovered by the homeowner, it may be too late or contentious to le an insurance claim. For example, in ear ly June the National Weather Service reported up to marble-size hail occurred in some areas from Leesburg to south Lake County. Most roofs looked just ne after the storm, but how many were structurally dam aged by hail stones plummeting thousands of feet from the sky? Curry suggests that homeowners always have a state-certied roong contractor inspect their roof for damage after a hail storm. A straight-line wind burst during a thunderstorm can structurally damage shingles and send poorly installed shingles ying through the air. In most cases, the big gest problem with wind is a tree limb crashing down on a roof creating actual holes in the roof. Before summer begins, homeowners should cut all tree limbs back and away from the roof. Central Floridas harsh climate is also rough on metal roong with paint fading as well as leaks from striking objects or piled-up leaves. The same heat-related expansion and contraction issue can cause screws to loosen and seals to break, which can lead to leaks. No other area of the home takes the full brunt of Floridas extreme weather as does the roof, and a leaking roof is one of the last signs of a failing roof.Don Magruder is the CEO of Ro-Mac Lumber & Supply, Inc., and he is also the host of the Around the House Radio Show heard every Monday at noon on My790AM WLBE in Leesburg.Roofing takes the brunt of summer weather DON MAGRUDERAROUND THE HOUSE HBA of Lake and Sumter supports Lake County Animal ServicesTAVARES Mem bers of the Home Build ers Association of Lake-Sumter have cre ated GoFundMe in an effort to lend nancial support to Lake Coun ty Animal Services for upgrades and improvements to the facility. Those interested in making secure dona tions to help with this project can go to www. GoFundMe.com/LakeCountyAnimalServices. For information on donating materials or services, call Carolyn Maimone at 352-2236519, email Exec@Lake SumterHBA.com or go to www.LakeSumterHBA.com. Additionally, Lake County Animal Services is seeking volunteers and foster families for the animals at the shel ter. To become a volunteer or to foster a cat or dog, go to www.lake county.gov/volunteer or email jnelson@lakecounty.gov.NAI Realvest negotiates two new office lease renewals ORLANDO NAI Realvest recently negotiat ed two renewal agreements totaling 5,041 rentable square feet of ofce space at ofce facilities in Lake Mary and Winter Park. Tom R. Kelley, II, CCIM, principal in the rm, negotiated a lease renewal of 4,000 square feet of Class A ofce space at 153 Par liament Loop in Lake Marys Regency Pointe ofce building. Nesco Resource, which was already leasing 2,725 square feet, expanded into an adjacent 1,275-square-foot suite and extended its cur rent lease for ve years. The landlord is 153 Par liament Loop LLC. At Gateway Plaza in Winter Park Kelley, along with senior broker associate Mary Frances West, CCIM and associ ate Chris Adams nego tiated a renewal agree ment with Medtronic Sofamor Danek USA Inc. for the 1,041 square feet it occupies in Suite 420, 1201 S. Orlando Ave. The landlord is Gateway Plaza LLC. Go to www.naire alvest.com for details. Two new Lennar models ready for viewing ORLANDO Lennar recently opened two new models for viewing at Traditions, one of the home builders newest communities, locat ed off of U.S Highway 27 overlooking Lake Ruby in Winter Haven in Polk County. Mark Metheny, presi dent of Lennars Central Florida Division, said the two models are the Ascot and the Kennedy. The Ascot model home features two bed rooms, two baths in 1,779 square feet of living area with a two-car garage. Metheny said the Kennedy offers four bedrooms, three baths in 2,277 square feet with a three-car garage. Lennar has 13 single-family oor plans to choose at Traditions ranging from 1,100 square feet of living area to 2,500 square feet on 40-, 50and 60-foot home sites priced from the $140s. Lennar is also building one of its special Quality You Can See homes at Traditions, offering buyers a cutaway look at wall, window and roof construc tion, showing electrical, plumbing and air con ditioning work. Community amenities at Traditions include a 19,000 square foot clubhouse with ball rooms, Olympic-size swimming pool, tness and aerobics facili ties, baseball, tennis and bocce ball courts as well as boat docks.PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS SUBMITTED PHOTO Blackton Inc.s company president Sean Monett is anked by the founders sons, CEO Michael Blackton, left, and COO Bruce Blackton, as the Orlando roong and ooring company supplying home builders from Jacksonville to Tampa celebrates its 60th anniversary. Michael Micky Blackton said his father Charles launched the company the rst week of May in 1954, in a warehouse next to the train tracks on Alden Road, near Ivanhoe antique row. Blackton started with a staff of four: Arthur Johnson, warehouseman; Gus Robertson, ofce manager and Vivian Mims, sales associate. Charles Blackton was both a salesman and truck driver for his company. Call 407-898-2661 for information, or email Micky@ Blacktoninc.com.BLACKTON INC. CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY JOSH BOAKAP Economics WriterWASHINGTON The num ber of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes shot up in May. But the pace of buying this year remains slower than in 2013, in part because of sluggish sales during winter. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted pend ing home sales index rose 6.1 percent to 103.9 last month. It was the sharpest month-overmonth gain since April 2010. The index remains 5.2 percent below its level a year ago. Pending sales are a barometer of future purchases. A oneto two-month lag usually exists between a contract and a completed sale. Lower mortgage rates and in creased supplies of homes on the market drove much of last months gains. Signed contracts rose in all four U.S. regions: the Northeast, Midwest, South and West. The housing market is nally showing signs of momen tum, though overall buying remains slower than last year. The sector continues to put the horrid (winter) weather behind it and is moving on, said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. It certain ly helps that condence is high er, borrowing costs are slipped from the start of the year and it is reportedly becoming less strenu ous to obtain a mortgage. In a separate report last week, the Realtors said completed sales of existing homes rose 4.9 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 mil lion homes. Still, sales are down 5 percent year-over-year. The Realtors forecast that sales of existing homes will decline 2.8 percent this year to 4.95 million, compared with 5.1 million in 2013. Sales of new homes jumped 18.6 percent last month to an annual rate of 504,000, the high est level since May 2008, the government said last week.Contracts to buy US homes up sharply in May

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E4 SOUTH LAKE PRESS Wednesday July 2, 2014 / DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 D002840 Youdonthavetopay extraforanevening servicecall.Munnsisthe homeof8to8Same GreatRate.Emergency servicesarealso available.Werethere whenyouneedus!CarlMunn24 /7/3 65(352)787-7741 CAC1814363 www.munnair.com2135USHwy441/27FruitlandPark,FLD004559 TheLake&Sumter RealEstateSectionGetsResults!Forinformationabout advertisinginthis sectioncall352-365-8287 factories are making more machin ery, cars, furniture and comput ers. Theyre hiring and giving work ers more overtime, which translates into bigger paychecks. Most analysts think the economy is growing at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the current quarter and will expand at a 3 percent rate for the rest of the year. The Federal Reserve foresees a similar improvement. Still, that pace would leave growth for the full year at about 2.25 per cent, only slightly above last years 1.9 percent. And despite all the posi tives, its worth keeping in mind that a truly robust economy wouldnt be thrown off so much by severe weather. Here are signs that the economy still hasnt achieved full health:HOUSING SLOWDOWNAt the top of most economists worry list is housing. Rising home prices and higher mortgage rates have put homes out of reach for many would-be buyers. Even for people willing and able to buy, there arent enough homes for sale. All of which has slowed purchases, which fell 5 percent in May compared with 12 months earlier. Builders started work in May on just over 1 million homes at an an nual rate, below the pace of the nal three months of last year. The slowdown translates into fewer construction jobs, smaller commis sions for Realtors and reduced sales of furniture, appliances and garden supplies. Yet there are signs that the hous ing market is stabilizing. Price gains are slowing. And mortgage rates have dipped. That could boost sales in coming months. In fact, data released this week suggested that this may already be happening. Sales of new and exist ing homes jumped in May.HIGHER GAS PRICES?Another threat: Middle East tur moil, particularly in Iraq, could cause oil and gas prices to spike. That would leave consumers with less money to spend on other goods and could lim it growth. Crude oil prices hit a ninemonth high Thursday. Gas prices averaged $3.68 Monday, about a dime higher than a year ago.STAGNANT WAGESWhile layoffs have fallen back to pre-recession levels and hiring is steady, the economy still isnt deliv ering what most Americans probably want most: A decent raise. Aver age hourly pay, adjusted for ination, slipped 0.1 percent in May compared with a year earlier. Its still slightly lower than when the recession end ed in June 2009. Flat pay limits con sumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic activity.LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENTDespite the pickup in hiring, 3.4 million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer more than double the pre-recession gure. Some may nd jobs as the economy recovers. Others will give up searching and return to school, retire early or care for relatives. Economists worry that the longer people are out of work, the more their skills erode. Having many former workers permanently fro zen out of the job market can slow growth. Last week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen expressed concern that longterm unemployment could create permanent damage to both those suffering through it and the broader economy.UNEMPLOYMENT NOT AS GOOD AS IT LOOKSThe unemployment rate has fall en to 6.3 percent, a ve-year low, from 10 percent in October 2009. But much of the drop has occurred because many people have given up on their job searches, re tired or stayed in school and nev er started looking. The government counts people as unemployed only if theyre actively seeking work. The rate has tumbled in large part because many of those out of work ar ent being counted as unemployed, not because hiring has soared. The percentage of Americans working or looking for work has reached a 35year low. ECONOMY FROM PAGE E2 CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABERAP Economics WriterWASHINGTON U.S. home prices rose in April from a year ago at the slowest pace in 13 months, reecting a recent drop-off in sales. The Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller 20city home price index rose 10.8 percent in April from 12 months earlier. Thats a healthy gain, but down from 12.4 per cent in the previous month and the smallest since March 2013. Annual price gains slowed in 19 of the 20 cities. Only Boston saw price increases acceler ate. Home sales have slowed since last sum mer as higher mortgage rates and rising prices and have made it harder for would-be buyers to afford a home. Sales of existing homes in May were 5 percent lower than 12 months earlier. Prices rose 1.1 percent in April compared with March, though that gain likely reected seasonal patterns. Home prices typically rise during the spring buying season. Some of the hottest housing markets in the past two years are start ing to cool off. Las Ve gas, Los Angeles, Phoe nix, San Diego and San Francisco reported annual price gains above 30 percent last year, ac cording to Case-Shiller. In April, their price increases were all below 20 percent. Home sales and construction started recov ering in 2012 from the Great Recession. But a sharp jump in mortgage rates last spring caused sales of existing homes to decline that summer. Harsh winter weather also dragged down pur chases. Recently, however, there have been signs that the housing market could be stabilizing. Mortgage rates have declined this year. The average rate on a 30year xed mortgage was 4.17 percent last week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. Thats up from 3.9 per cent a year ago but down from 4.5 percent at the beginning of the year. Lower mortgage rates and the slowdown in price gains may be helping sales. Purchas es of existing homes rose 4.9 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million, the National Asso ciation of Realtors said June 21. Thats the biggest one-month gain in nearly three years.US home prices rise at slowest pace in 13 months AP FILE PHOTO This May 19 photo, shows a home for sale in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. LILY LEUNGMCTMany of lifes essen tials, from cars to mobile phones, run on batteries. Will our homes be next? Two companies are ex ploring that possibility in a pilot case that involves storing the suns energy for residential use. San Jose, Calif.-based solar manufactur er SunPower Corp. has outtted a model home in Irvine, Calif., with a solar-panel system and battery that harnesses power from sun rays that can be used in the evening. If the numbers make sense, SunPower and partner KB Home, a Los Angeles-based builder, could incorporate the systems into future construction to appeal to the environmentally conscious homebuyer. Its a real opportuni ty for customers in the future, said Steve Ruff ner, president and re gional general manager of KB Homes Southern California division. Basically, the power they generate can be used when they get home from work, using it as a backup system during a power failure or natural disaster. But obviously the system is brandnew. The test case in Ir vine, one of three in the nation, began about a month ago. The other locations are San Diego and El Dorado Hills, in Northern California. Over time, the exper iment will give compa ny ofcials an idea of whether something like this could work on a grander scale. Because the pilot case is still early, few details are available. If a bigger roll-out does go forward, homeowners would own, not lease, the combined system of the solar pan els and battery unit. The cost is not yet available but would be rolled into the overall cost of the home. A so lar-panel system at a KB community in Ir vine could save homeowners more than $200 monthly, on average. An attached battery unit would likely yield more savings. SolarCity Corp. also offers solar-storage systems. So far, the biggest bar rier for the mass adop tion of solar storage for homes is its high cost, energy experts say. The installation of solar panels could cost as much as $30,000, which makes leasing an at tractive option for some homeowners.Home grabs onto suns rays in pilot case

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DALE JR. STILL STINGING FROM TALLADEGA, SPORTS B1 SEAWORLD: AP study shows many marine mammals in captivity often live longer A6 HOA FIGHT: Small ag causes big stir for retiree A3 LEESBURG, FLORIDA Friday, July 4, 2014 www.dailycommercial.com Vol. 138 No. 185 4 sections INDEX CLASSIFIED C8 COMICS A8 CROSSWORDS C5 DIVERSIONS A7 LEGALS C5 BUSINESS C4 NATION A5 OBITUARIES A4 SPORTS B1 VOICES A9 WORLD A6 TODAYS WEATHER Detailed forecast on page A10. 88 / 75 Sunny intervals with storms 50 JIM KUHNHENN Associated Press WASHINGTON Does anyone in politics dare talk up the econo my? Apparently not. After ve months of steady job growth and with unemployment hitting a six-year low, the reaction in Wash ington Thursday was a collective Yeah, but ... Across the politi cal spectrum, liberals and conservatives still found reason to de spair and point ngers a function of elec tion-year politics, beenthere-before skepticism and honest percep tions by many Ameri cans that the recovery has yet to improve their lives. Consider this from Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minneso ta: Too many working families are still tread ing water. Our focus now must be on solu tions that strengthen the middle class and give more hardworking Americans a fair shot by raising the minimum wage, making college more affordable, and investing in workforce training. And this from Repub lican Party Chairman Reince Priebus: Were glad to see some Amer icans found work last month, but we cant rest until jobs are easy to nd. Thats why Re publicans have passed ROXANNE BROWN | Staff Writer roxanne.brown@dailycommercial.com S taff Sgt. Socheat Sok Mom, a retired re sup port specialist with the United States Army, along with his wife and daugh ter, stood speechless in the driveway of their new home Wednesday morning. The south Clermont home off U.S. Highway 27 near the Four Corners area had been abandoned and vacant but was renovated top to bot tom and presented to Mom through the Military Warriors Support Foundation in part nership with Bank of America. The family was invited in side to see it for the rst time after a brief presenta tion of colors and the pledge of allegiance headed by a lo cal chapter of Patriot Guard Volleyball enthusiasts and the general public are invited to the grand opening of the Florida Region of USA Volleyballs Hickory Point Beach sand volleyball complex at 9 a.m. Saturday at 27341 State Road 19 in Tavares. Gov. Rick Scott will be attending the grand opening of his campaign ofce at 10 a.m. in The Villages today. The ofce is at 972 Old Mill Run in Lake Sumter Landing and will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. RICK SCOTT IN THE VILLAGES Local farmers, sher men, craftsmen, artists and more line the streets of downtown Leesburg by Towne Square from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday for the Saturday Morning Market. Live entertainment is featured. SATURDAY MORNING MARKET VOLLEYBALL COMPLEX 1 2 3 TOP WEEKENDS 3 Staff Report The Florida Supreme Court last week reject ed ex-Mascotte Police Ofcer James Ducketts latest death sentence appeal. Duckett, now 56, was convicted in 1988 for the 1987 sexual battery and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee. His lat est appeal focused main ly on allegations that the testimony of an FBI hair and ber analyst was false and misleading, and that a witness later recanted her testimony. The high court reject ed Ducketts challenge of the analysts quali cations as an expert and said his trial testimo ny was by no means the only evidence supporting the conviction in this case. The ana lyst had testied that a pubic hair found in McA bees underwear was consistent with Ducketts. Duckett also claimed that witness Gwendolyn Gurley later recanted her testimony about seeing a police car parked near a convenience store on the night of the murder, see ing McAbee out side the store, hearing Duckett call her name, and later seeing a big man and a small per son driving away in the cruiser. Duckett had offered as newly discovered ev idence a pair of afda vits from Gurleys chil dren that she lied at trial in order to get favorable treatment from law en forcement regarding certain offenses. However, the high court said, On review, we held that the recan tation evidence did not merit a new trial and condence in the ver dict was not under mined. Other trial evidence against Duckett includ ed him asking the store clerk about McAbees name and age on the night of the murder, her ngerprints found on Fla. Supreme Court rejects Mascotte killers latest appeal DUCKETT Positive numbers, but politicians hedge their bets JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP President Barack Obama stands next to a painting of Uncle Sam, during a visit with workers at 1776, a hub for tech startups on Thursday in Washington. The president said job growth in June shows the recovery is taking hold, but the economy could still do better. CLERMONT Veterans family gets gift of independence PHOTOS BY LINDA CHARLTON / SPECIAL TO THE DAILY COMMERCIAL Dao Mom receives the keys to the house from John Moskos, while husband Sok Mom holds his presentation plaque and daughter Keira rubs her eyes. Young Keira Mom plays with a bubble in her new room in her new house. SEE ECONOMY | A2 SEE APPEAL | A2 SEE HOME | A2

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A2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 HOW TO REACH US JULY 3 CASH 3 ............................................... 5-9-9 Afternoon .......................................... 0-6-8 PLAY 4 ............................................. 0-6-0-3 Afternoon ....................................... 8-5-4-0 FLORIDA LOTTERY JULY 2 FANTASY 5 ............................. 4-5-13-14-16 FLORIDA LOTTO ............... 7-15-36-37-39-45 POWERBALL .................... 8-18-45-53-5835 THE NEWSPAPER OF CHOICE FOR LAKE AND SUMTER COUNTIES SINCE 1875 The Daily Commercial (ISSN 0896-1042) is published daily for $90.74 per year (plus Florida sales tax) by Halifax Media Group at 212 East Main Street, Leesburg, Florida. Periodicals postage is paid at the USPO, Leesburg, FL. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to The Daily Commercial, P.O. Box 490007, Leesburg, FL 34749-0007. All material contained in this edition is property of The Daily Commercial and is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Reproduction is forbidden without written consent from the publisher. Call 352-787-0600 in Lake County or 877-702-0600 in Sumter County 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Call 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday and 7 to 10 a.m. on Sunday. Call the Circulation Department 48 hours ahead to stop service. 365-8200 In Sumter County: 877-702-0600 ADVERTISING Retail ................... 365-8200 Classied ............. 314-3278 CIRCULATION Lake Co. ....... 352-787-0600 Sumter Co. ... 877-702-0600 Circulation Billing 787-0600 ACCOUNTING ...... 365-8216 MISSED YOUR NEWSPAPER? REDELIVERY NOT AVAILABLE IN ALTOONA OR SUMTER GOING ON VACATION SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Call 352-787-0600 (Lake Co.) or 877-702-0600 (Sumter Co.) between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Prepayments for 3 months or more, mail to: Circulation Dept., The Daily Commercial, P.O. Box 490007, Leesburg, FL 347490007. Billed monthly at the rates shown. The Daily Commercial promptly corrects errors of fact appearing in its pages. If you believe we have made an error, call the news department at 352-365-8250. Home Delivery 3 Mos. Tax Total 6 Mos. Tax Total 1 Yr. Tax Total Daily/Sunday 28.43 1.99 30.42 50.05 3.50 53.56 90.74 6.35 97.09 SUBSCRIPTION RATES OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY STAFF INFORMATION STEVE SKAGGS publisher 352-365-8213 ........................... steve.skaggs@dailycommercial.com MARY MANNING-JACOBS advertising director 352-365-8287 ............... mary.manning-jacobs@dailycommercial.com NEWSROOM CONTACTS TOM MCNIFF executive editor 352-365-8250 ............................... tom.mcniff@dailycommercial.com WHITNEY WILLARD copy desk chief 352-365-8258 .......................... whitney.willard@dailycommercial.com PAUL RYAN digital editor 352-365-8270 .................................. paul.ryan@dailycommercial.com TO REPORT LOCAL NEWS SCOTT CALLAHAN, news editor 352-365-8203 ........................... scott.callahan@dailycommercial.com REPORTERS LIVI STANFORD county government, schools 352-365-8257 .............................. livi.stanford@dailycommercial.com ROXANNE BROWN South Lake County 352-394-2183 ......................... roxanne.brown@dailycommercial.com MILLARD IVES police and courts 352-365-8262 ................... millard.ives@dailycommercial.com THERESA CAMPBELL Leesburg and The Villages 352-365-8209 ................. theresa.campbell@dailycommercial.com AUSTIN FULLER business news, Mount Dora, Eustis, Tavares 352-365-8263 ......................... austin.fuller@dailycommercial.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Email submissions to letters@dailycommercial.com SPORTS RESULTS Schools or coaches can report game results after 6 p.m. by call ing 352-365-8268, or 352-365-8279. Submissions also can be emailed to sports@dailycommercial.com. FRANK JOLLEY sports editor 352-365-8268 ................................ frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com GOOD FOR YOU AND CELEBRATIONS ANNOUNCEMENTS Email news about your awards and personal or professional mile stones along with a photo, if you desire - to pam.fennimore@ dailycommercial.com. CALENDAR Email upcoming events to pam.fennimore@dailycommercial.com. dozens of jobs bills in the House of Representatives. Sadly, Democrats in Washington, D.C., have other pri orities. Even President Barack Obama, who would be eager to take cred it for an economy on the mend, felt compelled to throw in a dampening caveat as he drew attention to the 288,000 jobs created in June, to the lower, 6.1 percent unemployment rate and to the fastest job growth since 1999. As much progress as has been made, there are still folks out there who are struggling, he said Thurs day. We still have not seen as much increase in income and wages as wed like to see. A lot of folks are still digging themselves out of challeng es that arose out of the Great Reces sion. To be sure, there are real econom ic reasons to be wary, or at least not euphoric, over the most recent re port. The labor market remains weak, with a labor force participation rate stuck at 62.8 percent, the low est since 1978. Construction jobs reached their highest level since June 2009 but are still more than 1.7 million jobs below their 2006 peak, according to an analysis of jobs numbers by the Associated General Contractors of America. Moreover, hiring has tended to be predominantly in low-wage jobs, leading to stagnant wage growth, and the number of hours worked per week has not changed. Gains in paychecks are small enough that they can be wiped out by ination. The headline number masks the lingering structural weakness in the U.S. labor market, said Lindsey Piegza, a chief economist at the Sterne Agee brokerage house. Even if we saw Junes rate of job growth every month from here on out, we still wouldnt get back to health in the labor market for an other 2 1/2 years, said Heidi Shier holz of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. More important, beyond those statistics, are public perceptions of the economy. An Associated Press-GfK poll in May, found that the share of those surveyed who called the economy good stood at 34 percent, while 65 percent described it as poor. Thats about the same as it has been all year, though slightly above where it was during the partial government shutdown in October. Few expected improvement in the economy over the next 12 months, and more ex pected it to get worse. The perceptions have a partisan hue, as well. Economic condence as mea sured by Gallup found Democrats had the highest and Republicans the lowest. In the face of that, politicians are not likely to cheer an economic number. In the voting booth, econom ic perception beats economic sta tistics every time, said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Whats more, Democrats and Re publicans want to blame each oth er for not enacting policies they say would create more jobs. So Obama complains about Republicans not increasing the minimum wage and Republican House Speaker John Boehner says Obama has failed to lead on issues such as trade and workplace exibility. In order for us to make real prog ress, the president must do more than criticize, Boehner said. With the economy still emerg ing as the top issue of the day with a plurality of voters, each side will continue to brand the other as un compromising obstructionists. ECONOMY FROM PAGE A1 the hood of his patrol car and tire tracks found at a local lake matching the tires on his cruiser. The girl was assaulted, strangled and drowned in that lake. In addition, it was brought up during trial that over a ve-month period, Duckett allegedly picked up three other young women in his patrol car while on duty, reportedly making sexual advances toward two of them and engaging in sex ual activity with the third. APPEAL FROM PAGE A1 Riders and a few words by Bank of America of cials. Friends, family and neighbors looked on as the family, through smiles and tears of joy, entered the home. Reas Dip, Moms moth er, who knows little En glish beyond Thank you, needed no words, however, because her tears, bows and uplifted hands spoke volumes. Despite all the thank yous directed at them, John P. Moskos, Bank of Americas Central Florida Market president, said it is Mom who deserves the gratitude. This is just a small way for us to say thank you to Sergeant Mom for his service to the country and to his family for their sacrices and support, Moskos said. After having a look around the house, Mom admitted feeling over whelmed, yet blessed. This is a little bit over whelming. I really didnt expect so many peo ple to be here with us to day and caring so much for us. Were truly bless ed and well be forever thankful. We have never had a house of our own and really, we havent been together as a fami ly too much since I only just got out of the mili tary in April, Mom said. Moms wife, Dao, said it all feels like a dream to her. One of her rst or ders of business, she said, is fencing the back yard and planting a garden. We love it (the house), but we just cant believe it. It hasnt hit us yet. Maybe in like a month well wake up and say, Where are we? How did we get here? Dao Mom said, adding that their furniture is scheduled to arrive from Washington state later this month. Keira, who immediate ly found her room be cause of the toys, trea sure box, drawing tablets and crayons, plopped down on a purple bean bag and began blowing bubbles. Keira said she could not wait to move in and hoped future dcor ideas for her room include characters from Avatar and The Last Airbender. When asked if she liked her room, her answer each time was a clear thumbs up. Seeing how happy the family is and peek ing in to see Keira blow ing bubbles and sitting in her room, not wanting to come out, just makes it all worthwhile. Thats what its all about, said Brian Chilton, Bank of Americas regional market manager for Lake Coun ty. Its incredibly moving seeing the impact of our program rsthand. And just knowing what these veterans did for the coun try, you just cant thank them enough. Bank of America re cently surpassed its goal to donate 1,000 proper ties to nonprots sup porting military ser vice member families and rst responders. The bank works closely with Military Warriors Support Foundation and other nonprot organizations that identify the home re cipients and also provide related services, such as nancial counseling. Originally envisioned as a three-year program when announced in Au gust 2012, Bank of Amer ica reached its 1000th military home donation more than a year ahead of schedule. The bank will continue the pro gram, ofcials said. Moms home marks the 240th home the bank has presented to a returning veteran in Florida. Mom served in the U.S. Army from October, 2007 to April, 2014. Mom was born in Cambo dia, served in the ROTC throughout High School in Long Beach Calif. and joined the Army, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. While in the Uruzgan Province of Afghanistan in 2012, Moms platoon was attacked by a suicide bomber. Wounded and dazed by the blast, Mom aided fellow soldiers in jured by the blast. Mom was awarded a Purple Heart and an Army Com mendation Medal with V Device for valorous actions under enemy re. Mom, planning to pur sue a career in the medi cal eld, said he is grate ful to be alive and home with his family. That suicide bomb er came out of nowhere. There were kids all around the place and he was about 15 feet away from us. Nobody knew who he was. We tried to stop him, but he just ex ploded himself. Two peo ple died and a lot of peo ple were injured and on the ground. I was lucky, Mom said at the home dedication Wednesday. Mom is no stranger to hardship, however. Nor is his family. His mother, Reas Dip, led four small chil dren and her own moth er safely out from the depths of the Cambodi an jungle to the safety of a refugee camp in Thai land. They made a gru eling, month-long trek through constant driz zling rain, rice eld res, mud, heat and shelling. The family arrived in Dallas, Texas in the win ter of 1980 and after set tling in Long Beach, Ca lif., Mom recalls the familys struggles with gangs and poverty. Still they endured it and looking back, Mom said the entire fami ly is grateful to be alive, in the safety of the Unit ed States and in close proximity to one anoth er now. His siblings live only one hour away in Zephyrhills. Mom said even the in juries he sustained while serving in the Army are nothing compared to what the United States has given him and his family. I was a little kid, like about ve, so I vaguely remember eeing Cam bodia, though Ive heard stories from my older sis ter and brother and from my mom and grand mother, Mom said. I clearly remember being just feet from the Thailand border when we turned around and saw that my sister, who was carrying our young est brother, had dropped him, unable to endure his weight through deep banks of mud. My moth er, older brother and me had to run and get him, and just as we were lift ing him, a shell that land ed right beside us in the mud, slid away from us as a mudslide occurred so it didnt hit us. My mother always breaks down in tears when she talks about it, he said. Its amaz ing were here today. Its amazing what people have done to help us and well never forget that, Mom said. HOME FROM PAGE A1 LINDA CHARLTON / SPECIAL TO THE DAILY COMMERCIAL The Patriot Guard Riders were the honor guard for the ceremony, held in the Four Corners area of south Lake County This is a little bit overwhelming. I really didnt expect so many people to be here with us today and caring so much for us. Were truly blessed and well be forever thankful. We have never had a house of our own and really, we havent been together as a family too much since I only just got out of the military in April. Dao Mom Army veteran whose family received a house in Clermont

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A3 Area Briefs ww ... and well share it with our readers. Some of our best story ideas and photos come from our readers. So dont hesitate to share your youth activities, awards, accomplishments, festivals, charity events and other things that make our communities special. And dont overlook those family milestones birthdays, engagements, marriages, business promotions and military news. Just email your photos and news to ... pamfennimore@dailycommercial.com IF YOU SEE NEWS HAPPENING, RECORD IT TAVARES Lake government offices close for Fourth of July The Lake County Commission, Clerk of Courts, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector will be closed today in ob servance of July 4, as well as all op erations for the Lake County Solid Waste Division, LakeXpress xedroute bus service and the Lake County Welcome Center, 20763 U.S. Highway 27 in Groveland. Discovery Gardens, at 1951 Woodlea Road, will also be closed today and will reopen at 9 a.m. on Monday. All Florida Department of Health ofces in Lake County are closed and will reopen on Monday. For information, go to www.lake county.gov. LEESBURG Leesburg Public Library closed for holiday The Leesburg Public Library, 100 E. Main St., will be closed today in obser vance of Independence Day, reopen ing on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, call 352-728-9790 or go to www.leesburgorida.gov/ library. LEESBURG Elementary principal to host meet-and-greet Newly appointed principal at Leesburg Elementary, Dr. Patrick Galatowitsch, will host a meet-andgreet event for the public at 5 p.m., on Tuesday at the school, 2229 South St. Formerly principal at Fern Creek Elementary in Orlando for the past ve years and an Orange County Public Schools administrator for the past 25 years, Galatowitsch is join ing Lake County Schools for the 2014-2015 school year. For information, call the school at 352365-6308. LADY LAKE Uncle Donalds Farm hosts Wednesday Camp for kids Activities for this fun camp at Uncle Donalds Farm, 2713 Grifn Ave., in Lady Lake include hands-on experi ences with farm animals, nature stud ies, brushing horses, games and more as they spend a day on the farm. Kids ages 6-14 can partici pate from 9:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug. 13. The camps costs $25 per child per day and. Kids need to bring a bag lunch. For reservations and information, call 352-753-2882. MOUNT DORA Volunteers to release beetles to fight air potatoes Residents are asked to assist in the release of leaf beetles, which tar get only the air potato vine at an event hosted by the Lake County Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, at 9:30 a.m., on July 11 at Palm Island Park, 411 S. Tremain St., in Mount Dora. Participants should dress accord ingly and activities and games will be provided for children after the event. Call at 352-343-4101 or email Burnb48@u.edu for information. State & Region NEWS EDITOR SCOTT CALLAHAN scott.callahan@dailycommercial.com 352-365-8203 AUSTIN FULLER | Staff Writer austin.fuller@dailycommercial.com While work is taking place on Donnelly Street and Third Avenue, sever al other construction proj ects are going on in the downtown Mount Dora area. A $1,486,013 project that is expected to be complet ed by Nov. 30 will create an underground storm water treatment system that will reduce pollutants going to Lake Dora, according to Mount Dora Public Com munications Ofcer Kelda Senior. The shufeboard courts in Donnelly Park also will be replaced by an event pad that will cov er the storm water treat ment system, according to a press release and a fol low up email from Senior. The courts were not used anymore, although in the past they were quite popu lar, said Senior, adding the event pad will have met al loops for special event tents. The streets that will be JASON DEAREN Associated Press JACKSONVILLE A tiny American ag stuck be tween bright purple ow ers on a Jacksonville re tirees porch has become a tempest in a teapot at a Florida condominium community. Like many planned com munities, The Tides Con dominium at Sweetwa ter home to 73-year-old Larry Murphree has strict rules about how one properly displays Christ mas lights, parks a car and even ies Old Glory. After previous objec tions by the condo associ ation, Murphree festooned the inside of his garage with Christmas lights when his outside display was deemed improper. He moved his guests cars when the association com plained about how they were parked. But a request to remove his 17-by-12-inch ag from a ower pot on his porch proved to be the last straw for the U.S. Air Force veter an. They want everything just so, he said about the condo association. Theyve got to be stopped, and Im going to stop them. Ive just dug in my heels. Murphrees tiny ag vi olates the communitys ower pot ordinance which says that contents of planters are limited to maintained foliage only, documents show. Homeowners at The Tides are permitted to dis play ags, but it must be done in accordance with specic condo rules. The ags must be in ag brack ets and hung so they are even with the homes ad dress plate. We have established rules that conform with the U.S. Code and Flori da statutes regarding ag etiquette, and we encour age residents to y Amer ican ags in accordance with the state and national MILLARD IVES | Staff Writer millard.ives@dailycommercial.com A man accused of hav ing public sex in The Vil lages last month was sentenced to six months in jail. David A. Bobilya, 49, of Summereld, was sentenced Wednesday to 180 days in the Sum ter County Jail and one year of probation on a plea deal on indecent exposure charges. He MILLARD IVES | Staff Writer millard.ives@dailcommercial.com Two workers fell from near the top of a construction site in Tavares on Wednesday after a set of trusses collapsed. The incident occurred about 6 p.m. next to the Tav ares Surgery Center on Mayo Drive after one truss fell and about seven more tumbled af ter it, Tavares police Lt. Jason Paynter said. It was like a domino effect, Paynter said. The two unidentied men fell at least 20 feet to the con crete. One man received mostly nicks and scratch es and refused medical treat ment but the other fell on his head and was airlifted to Or lando Regional Medical Cen ter as a precaution. Both men were conscious and breathing after the fall, and the injuries are not con sidered life-threatening. Nei ther was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Paynter said it is the same construction site where strong winds knocked down walls of the building last month. How ever, there was no wind at the time of Wednesdays accident. Construction workers injured as trusses collapse BRETT LE BLANC / DAILY COMMERCIAL The site of a building worksite collapse in Tavares, is shown on Thursday. On Wednesday, two workers fell after a set of trusses collapsed. MOUNT DORA More changes coming to downtown TAVARES Tiny flag creates big stir for Jacksonville retiree PHOTOS BY JASON DEAREN / AP In this photo taken Wednesday, Larry Murphree, 73, stands in his garage next to an upside down American ag in Jacksonville The U.S. The small ag in a ower pot placed at the entrance of Larry Murphrees home, in Jacksonville, that his condo association has banned him from displaying. DARA KAM News Service of Florida Winners of Floridas ve, highly sought-after medical marijuana li censes could be select ed through lotteries, ac cording to a draft rule released late Wednes day by the Department of Health. Some 41 nurseries are eligible to grow the pot, including three in Lake County. The 16-page draft rule comes in advance of an agency workshop Mon day in Tallahassee that is drawing heavy attention. The draft rule, gener ally considered a start ing point, outlines how the state intends to im plement a new law, signed by Gov. Scott, that made Florida one of nearly two dozen states that permit some sort of marijuana. Floridas law restricts legal mari juana to strains that are State rolls out plan for high-stakes pot industry Man in public sex case sentenced SEE PROJECTS | A5 SEE SENTENCE | A4 SEE FLAG | A4 SEE POT | A4

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A4 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 Tr usted by hundreds of families for the care of their beloved pets!Staff on site 24/7. Day care available. Large air conditioned indoor play areas. State-of-the-art grooming studio. Grooming 7 days a week. 3 groomers on staff.352.253.005 9 10 83 7 U. S. Hw y. 44 1, Su it e 3, Leesburg (n ex t to Home Depot)www petlo dg e andspa.com OBITUARIES Windy M. Collins Eagle Windy Michelle Col lins Eagle, Funeral Ser vices for Windy Mi chelle Collins Eagle, age 54, of Mascotte, FL, who passed away on Wednesday June 24, 2014, will be held Saturday July 5, 2014, 3:30 P.M. at New Ja cobs Chapel Mission ary Baptist Church 410 West Highway 50 Cl ermont, FL. Interment will follow in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Mas cott, FL. Visitation will be held on Friday July 4, 2014 from 5-7 P.M. at the Church. She is sur vived by her Husband: Carol Eagle; her chil dren, other relatives and sorrowing friends. Marvin C. Zanders Fu neral Home, Inc.. 232 W. Michael Gladden Blvd., Apopka, Florida. (407) 886-3388 www.zander sfuneralhome.com A Zanders Service Joseph James Gaynor Joseph James Gaynor, age 96, died at Lake Port Square on Sunday, June 29, 2014 after a short ill ness. Born June 25, 1918 in Baltimore, MD, he lived in Baltimore and Wilmington, DE be fore serving in the Coast Guard in World War II. He worked for the B&O Railroad and lived in Fanwood NJ, Sever na Park MD and Lou isville KY where he was President and Chair man of the Board of the K&IT Railroad. He re tired from the railroad to Tavares FL in 1981 where he continued to enjoy golf, boating and woodworking. He also lived in Lady Lake FL before moving to Lake Port Square. He was ac tive in the Rotary Club, Lake Square Presbyteri an Church, and the Res idents Advisory Board of Lake Port Square. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Mary C Gaynor of Lake Port Square, and daughter Victoria G Le rch of Lothian MD, son James Gaynor of Heath row FL, three grand children and four great grandchildren. A me morial service will be held on July 12th from 1PM to 3PM at Lake Port Square, 821 Lake Port Blvd, Leesburg FL. in the west building. Relatives and friends are invited to Joes me morial celebration. In terment will be at Flor ida National Cemetery, Bushnell FL. Online condolences may be left at www.beyersfuner alhome.com. Arrange ments entrusted to Bey ers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg, FL. DEATH NOTICES Nathan Duckworth Sessum Nathan Duckworth Sessum, 58, of Wild wood, died Monday, June 30, 2014. Rock er-Cusack Mortuary, Leesburg. Martha Esperanza Matinez Martha Esperan za Martinez, 55, of Al tamonte Springs, died Saturday, June 28, 2014. Rocker-Cusack Mortu ary, Leesburg. Daniel W. Mason Daniel W. Bill Ma son, 90, of Tavares, died Wednesday, July 2, 2014. Steverson, Ham lin & Hilbish Funerals and Cremations, Tava res. George Edward Santman II George Edward Sant man, II, 53, of Lees burg, died Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Beyers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg. IN MEMORY also was sentenced by the judge to 60 days in jail on disorderly con duct charges stemming from the same June 2 incident. Bobilya, who plead ed no contest, received the maximum sen tence on the disorder ly conduct charge and could have received a year in jail on the expo sure charge. Assistant State Attor ney Tina Smith, who prosecuted the case, said she believed the sentence was justied. Considering where he was having sex, it was the right sentence, Smith said. His alleged partner, Margaret Ann Klemm, 68, of The Villages, will have her next court hearing on the same charges in August. She remains in the Sumter County Jail with no bail because her arrest vio lated her probation on previous a DUI charge. The Sumter County Sheriffs Ofce received a call about 10:30 p.m. June 2 about two peo ple having sex at the pavilion in the Lake Sumter Landing Mar ket Square of The Vil lages. When deputies arrived, Bobilya and Klemm were alleged ly still having sex with their clothes partially removed. Sheriffs of cials said investigators believe the couple was intoxicated at the time. SENTENCE FROM PAGE A3 standards, the home owners associations lawyers said in a state ment. Strict enforcement of HOA rules is key to keeping communities looking nice and prop erty values high, said Frank Rathbun, spokes man for Community Associations Institute in Falls Church, Virgin ia, an industry trade as sociation. We all respect this gentlemans service to our country, but good deeds should not en able somebody to break the established rules , Rathbun said. If you make one ex ception for a veteran with a ag, then youll have to do it for some one who wants to build a treehouse above the property line for their kids, or for someone with a strong desire to paint their house a dif ferent color. The tidily dressed, sil ver-haired Murphrees battle over the dimin utive ag dates to 2012, when he led a federal lawsuit over the matter. That lawsuit argued that the association was violating his free speech rights and the 2005 Freedom to Dis play the American Flag Act, which prohibits homeowners associa tions from restricting ag ying. The two sides settled that suit, and M urphree said he made no mon ey he just wanted to keep the ag in his ower pot. He thought the mat ter was settled until two weeks later, when the HOA drafted new ower pot rules that forbade his tiny ag from being own. The ne notices started ap pearing in his mailbox again. So Murphree led a second federal law suit earlier this year. That was dismissed in March by a U.S. District Court judge who said, among other things, that it was an issue for state courts. No state lawsuit has yet been led, and Mur phrees attorney Gust Sarris said they are try ing to settle the matter with The Tides out of court before ling. If he loses his current battle against the HOA and fails to pay his nes or dues, Murphree says he could lose his home. He said he owes about $30,000 related to the challenge. The Tides has also led a lien against Mur phrees property for un paid HOA dues the money he sent for dues was instead applied by the HOA to his ag nes and legal costs. Murphrees neigh bors have largely been supportive of his ght, he said, but after visits by television crews and reporters, some wish he would just y the ag according to the rules. But Murphree be lieves hes ghting for a larger cause. This is about my love and respect for the ag, he said. Theres people who strap on a gun to protect me and my family ... its a small ag but a big thank you. FLAG FROM PAGE A3 low in euphoria-in ducing tetrahydro cannabinol, or THC, and high in cannaba diol, or CBD. The lowTHC, high-CBD strain is purported to elim inate or dramatically reduce life-threaten ing seizures in chil dren with severe ep ilepsy. The law also allows patients who suffer from severe muscle spasms or cancer to be put on a compassionate use registry for the lowTHC product as long as their doctors ap prove. The Florida law also requires that cultiva tion, processing and distribution of the nal product take place at the same locations and allows for one dis pensary in each of ve different regions of the state. Growers are lim ited to nurseries that have been doing busi ness in Florida for at least 30 years and are producing at least 400,000 plants. Currently, 41 nurs eries meet that crite ria, including three in Lake County, accord ing to the Florida De partment of Agricul ture and Consumer Services. Its not clear how many of these 41 businesses would want to participate. Those eligible in Lake County are: Jons Nursery Inc., 24546 Nursery Way, Eustis. McCrorys Sunny Hill Nursery, 35152 La Place Court, Eustis. Transplant Grow ers, P.O. Box 1508, Sor rento. If there is more than one applicant within a region, a public lot POT FROM PAGE A3 tery will be held to deter mine the order in which applications are consid ered, according to the draft rule. The rst com plete application that meets all of the eligibil ity requirements would be the winner. The chosen dispensa ry would have 30 days to pay $150,000 for a li cense and post a $5 mil lion performance bond. If the applicant fails to meet the nancial obli gations, the department would start the selection process over again. Applicants would have 10 days to apply once the rule goes into effect, a short window of time for those trying to break into the states newest regulated industry. Under the rule, dis pensaries would have to be open a minimum of 30 hours per week and operate between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. And the rule would also bar sales of any edible products like cookies or candy. Applicants would also have to provide doc umentation that they have the ability to obtain the premises, resourc es and personnel neces sary to operate as a dis pensing organization, including maps showing the location of facilities; site plans drawn to scale of the cultivation, pro cessing and dispensing areas; and photographs showing the parking lot and entryways into the building. Also, applicants would be required to include a list of staff members, who must all be over the age of 21, and prove that they have passed back ground screenings. The application must also include proof that in dividuals who are own ers have passed back ground screenings. According to the pro posed rule, the depart ment could refuse to renew a license if a dis pensary is within 500 feet of a school that ex isted before the organi zation submitted its ini tial application. Any sample that has more than .8 percent THC or less than 10 per cent CBD would have to be reported immediate ly to law enforcement ofcials.

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A5 So metimes a simple pr ocedur e, such as ey elid surger y, can help yo u to see better and ev en re duce fatigue. As the rst oculoplastic su rgeon in Lake Coun ty Dr Go ldey has spent ye ars helping her patients impr ov e their facial functionality and appearance. Sh e can also help yo u re stor e yo ur yo uthful appearance. In fact, she was the rst physician in Central Fl or ida designated by the manufactur er of BO TO X to pr ov ide training to other physicians on BO TO X techniques. To day ther e ar e mor e non-surgical options than ev er for minimizing the eects of aging. Wi th Dr Go ldey s guidance, yo u ll be able to choose the one that s best for yo u.Whether it s minimizing signs of aging or corr ecting sagging ey elids, I lo ve being able to help my patients feel better about the way the y see and look. St acia H. Golde y, MD FA CS rf nft b n t b n t b nt tt 888.820 .7878 352.735 .2020 to sc hed ule your app oi nt me nt! Find out more in formation onl ine at r f n r f rn t f b n rnt n NEW LOCA TION:Mid Florida Eye Center The Vi llages/Santa Fe Crossing 8630 E. CR 466, Suite A Santa Fe Cr ossing Pr ofessional Center CR 466 441 27 MORSE BL VD. BUENA VIST A BL VD. ROLLINGACRESRD. rf fr n tr r b t r n n r f f f n f t b f f f b f f nf f f f fb f rf f t r f rf nt bt r f r n tn b t f r f n t b t r t t r bbb f f b f t f affected by this project include Sixth Avenue from between Donnelly and Baker Street to between Tremain and Grandview Street, Seventh Avenue from Baker Street to between Tremain and Grandview Street, Eighth Avenue between Baker Street and Tremain Street, Baker Street from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue, and Tremain Street partially between Eighth and Ninth Avenue, according to the release. Its been needed for a while, Se nior said. Its essentially to help with drainage and ooding and also to pro tect the lake because its storm water so its going to catch all that runoff. Elizabeth Evans Park at the end of Donnelly Street is being made into an event space and previously had ood ing issues, Senior said. The improve ments make the space more solid and will give it more electrical capabilities, she said, noting an events pad was also recently added there. Parking was added in the middle of Edgerton Court, the road leading to the park, and when more parking is completed it will give the park 26 ad ditional spaces, Parks and Recreation Director Roy Hughes said. The majority of the work there is done, but other parking and more aesthetic work, which will be n ished around mid-July, still needs to be done, according to Hughes and Se nior. Work, which Senior said will be done before October, is also taking place on Tremain Street from 5th Av enue to Lincoln Avenue to turn the streets southbound lane into a pedes trian and bicycle path. PROJECTS FROM PAGE A3 The Lake County Prop erty Appraisers eFile ap plication for homestead exemptions, launched only seven months ago, is proving extremely popu lar among new home owners. Only 19 of Floridas 67 appraisers currently offer an eFile app, according to a press release from Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker. Among county ap praisers nation-wide, breaking 50 percent with an online product seems to be an industry bench mark, he said. We hit 54 percent intake using eFile in our rst 10 weeks. Weve now inched up to 56 percent. For many appraisers, breaking the 50 percent mark has taken several years and some still ha vent been able to hit the mark, Baker said in the release. Homestead exemp tion offers up to $50,000 off the assessed value of a home and protects it against future spikes in value with a 3 percent cap in assessed value. According to Baker, nearly 2,000 Lake Coun ty property owners have led electronically for the exemption so far this year. We track the app using Google Analytics; from this, we can tell the aver age time it takes a home owner to le is less than 11 minutes, he said in the release Without ever leaving the comfort of home, folks are saving on average $750 a year in property taxes using eFile. Bakers eFile applica tion caught the eye of the Florida Department of Revenues Property Tax Oversight Division, which recently invited him to speak on the success of Lake Countys eFile app to other county property appraisers attending an educational workshop in St. Augustine. There were about 40 other county proper ty appraisers in atten dance, Baker said. Since the presentation, several have contacted my ofce for detailed discussion and advice on how to im plement a similar app or how to make their exist ing app more success ful. They have been very complimentary of what weve accomplished. Information on home stead exemption and all other exemptions is available at www.lcpa. org or by calling 352-2532150. TAVARES Property Appraisers e-file app popular with homeowners EMERY P. DALESIO Associated Press KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. A strength ening Hurricane Ar thur forced thousands of vacationers on the North Carolina coast to abandon their Inde pendence Day plans while cities farther up the East Coast resched uled reworks displays threatened by rain from the storm. After passing over or near North Carolina early Friday, Hurricane Arthur was expected to weaken as it travels northward and slings rain along the East Coast. The annual Bos ton Pops Fourth of July concert and reworks show was rescheduled for Thursday because of potential heavy rain from Arthur, while re works displays in New Jersey and Maine were postponed until later in the weekend. Forecasters expect Arthur to strengthen to a Category 2 storm with winds of 96 mph or more by the time it passes early Friday over or near the Out er Banks a 200-mile string of narrow barri er islands with about 57,000 permanent res idents. We dont know for sure if the exact cen ter of Arthur is going to pass over land or not. The chances have been increasing for that to occur with the last cou ple of forecasts. But even if the exact cen ter doesnt go over you, you will experience impacts tonight. The weather is going down hill in North Carolina, even as we speak, said Rick Knabb, the direc tor of the U.S. Nation al Hurricane Center in Miami. The islands are susceptible to high winds, rough seas and road-clogging sands, prompting an exodus that began Wednesday night. Hurricane Arthur nears North Carolina coastline

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A6 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 FL State Certifi ed 1118 S. 14th St. (U.S. 27), Leesburg, FLTo See Ou r Wo rk Visit Us At www .lakes quare .in fo rff nt bb nfb n f n n n bft f n f f b f tCustom Scr een Doorsand mor e . RYAN LUCAS and BRAM JANSSEN Associated Press BAGHDAD With large parts of Iraq in militant hands, a top Kurdish leader called on regional lawmakers Thursday to lay the ground work for a referendum on independence, a vote that would likely spell the end of a unied Iraq. The recent blitz by Sun ni militants across much of northern and western Iraq has given the countrys 5 mil lion Kurds who have long agitated for independence their best chance ever to seize disputed territory and move closer to a decades-old dream of their own state. But the Kurds still face con siderable opposition from many in the internation al community, including the United States, which has no desire to see a fragmented Iraq. A Western-established noy zone in 1991 helped the Kurds set up their enclave, which has emerged over the years as a beacon of stability and prosperity, while much of the rest of the country has been mired in violence and political turmoil. The three-province territory was formally recognized as an au tonomous region within Iraq following the U.S.-led inva sion in 2003 that toppled dic tator Saddam Hussein. Speaking to the region al legislature Thursday, the president of the Kurdis tan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, told law makers to set up an elector al commission to hurry up and prepare for a referen dum on self-determination. We will be in a better po sition and we will have bet ter (political) weapons in our hands. But how we will do this? he said. What kind of steps will there be? For this, you have to study the issue and take steps in this direc tion. It is time to decide our self-determination and not wait for other people to de cide for us. Barzani spoke behind closed doors, but The Asso ciated Press obtained a video of his address. Kurdish leaders have threatened for years to hold an independence referen dum, but those moves were often more about wresting concessions from the central government in Baghdad than a real push for statehood. The recent Sunni offensive has ef fectively cleaved the country in three, bringing the pros pect of full independence within reach. Kurdish ghters already have seized control of dis puted territory including the city of Kirkuk, a major oil hub. The Kurds say they only want to protect the ar eas from the Sunni militants. Many of the zones have con siderable Kurdish communi ties that the Kurds have de manded be incorporated into their territory, making them unlikely to give them up. With its own oil resources, the Kurdish region has long had a contentious relation ship with Baghdad, with dis putes over a range of issues including how to share the revenue. In May, the Kurd ish government sold oil inde pendent of the central gov ernment for the rst time, shipping about 1.05 million barrels to Turkey. In retalia tion, Baghdad stopped giv ing the Kurds the share of the central budget they are enti tled to receive. The border of the Kurd ish self-rule region is anoth er point of contention. The Kurds say they have tried for years to get Baghdad to agree on where to draw the fron tier, but the central govern ment has dragged its feet. They point to a constitution al amendment requiring that Kirkuks fate be decided by referendum, but it has never been implemented. While the Sunni militants offensive may have turned the situation in the Kurds fa vor, there is still signicant opposition to changing the status quo. Kurdish independence is opposed by the U.S., as well as by Iraqs regional neigh bors, Turkey and Iran both of whom have large Kurdish minority populations. Iraq is divided. We have got a new reality, Fuad Hus sein, the chief of staff to Bar zani, told reporters Thursday. He was in Washington to up date senior Obama admin istration ofcials on Kurdish aspirations for self-determi nation. DAVID MCHUGH Associated Press KIEV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shook up his faltering military Thursday, ap poin ting a new defense minister and top gen eral while speaking an grily about the years of decay and corruption that left the forces un able to deal effective ly with the well-armed eastern insurgency. His tougher tone, an alysts say, reects pub lic pressure to contin ue the ght against the insurgents in the re gions bordering Rus sia even with a rick ety military thats had little success. Poroshenko de nounced the complete collapse of the govern ments ability to supply the armed forces in a sometimes angry, n ger-wagging speech in parliament. He won quick ap proval for his choice of former top police of cial Valery Heletey as defense minister, re placing Mikhailo Koval. He also tapped Lt. Gen. Viktor Muzhenko as chief of the militarys general staff and Yury Kosyuk, an agriculture magnate and one of Ukraines richest men, to oversee defense is sues in the presiden tial administration and to help purge the army of thieves and grafters. Accusations of corrup tion have been rife as Kievs operation against the rebels continues. Today the reviv al of the army is start ing from scratch, an army which is capa ble of ghting and win ning, Poroshenko said in parliament. Poroshenkos shake up underscores the complex job he faces of making peace overtures and at the same time suppressing the insur gency that threatens to tear his country apart or create a permanent twi light zone beyond gov ernment control. Other pressures come from outside: Ukraine and the West say Russia is helping arm the reb els and letting its citi zens cross the border to ght, while key allies France and Germany are pushing Poroshen ko to pursue talks over attacks. MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO Since the release of a high ly-critical documentary last year, SeaWorld En tertainment has been condemned by animal rights activists distressed over the condition of its killer whales. But annu al survival rates for some of the most common marine mammals in cluding killer whales at SeaWorlds three parks are near the top of all U.S. parks and aquari ums, an analysis of ve decades of federal data by The Associated Press showed. SeaWorlds survival rates for bottlenose dol phins and California sea lions actually exceed es timates for those in the wild. Breakthroughs in training and medicine that allow the parks medical staffs to per form far fewer stressful or invasive procedures are partly responsible for those successes, Sea World ofcials said. Decades ago, an eval uation of a marine mammal at a SeaWor ld park might require a pool to be drained for an X-ray or the animal to be restrained. No lon ger. Through behavior al training, and bribes of herring and salmon, the marine mammals at Sea World parks have learned to give breath, urine and blood samples on cue. Dolphins are trained to keep their heads out of the water so endoscopes can be passed into the stomach for a look. An elaborate laboratory on SeaWorld grounds allows samples to be evaluated immediately. We do a lot of self-cri tiquing of who is doing what, how, said Todd Robeck, vice president of reproductive research at SeaWorld Entertain ment, Inc., which is the largest holder of marine mammals in the Unit ed States. How are you handling food? How are you handling your moms and calves? What is the medical care? Killer whales born in captivity at SeaWor ld parks have a survival rate nearly equal to their counterparts in the wild, according to APs analy sis of data from the fed eral Marine Mammal Inventory Report. How ever, the survival rate of all SeaWorlds orcas, in cluding those captured in the oceans, is lower than estimates of those living in the wild. While the surviv al rates have steadi ly improved over the past ve decades, they dont speak to the quali ty of life that whales, dol phins and sea lions have at SeaWorld parks. Crit ics say keeping intelli gent marine mammals in captivity is inhumane and detrimental to their well-being. Last years documen tary, Blacksh, ex plored what may have driven a killer whale named Tilikum to kill veteran SeaWorld train er Dawn Brancheau in 2010. The documentary argued that killer whales in captivity become more aggressive to hu mans and to each other. Several entertainers, including Willie Nel son, Heart and Trisha Yearwood, pulled out of planned SeaWorld per formances, and oppo nents have been pro testing regularly outside SeaWorlds Orlando park. SeaWorld continues to exploit these complex and very socially interac tive animals, said Bryan Wilson, a coordinator for the Animal Rights Foun dation of Florida, during a recent protest. AP calculated surviv al rates for killer whales, bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions and beluga whales at more than 170 U.S. parks and aquariums. Animals younger than a year old werent included be cause of the difculty of making comparisons in the wild at that age. MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer NEW YORK Wouldnt you love to escape this busy world and just spend some time alone with your thoughts? Maybe not, says a study of volunteers who actually tried it. Some even started giving them selves electric shocks as the min utes ticked by. I think many of them were try ing to shock themselves out of boredom, said psychologist Tim othy Wilson of the University of Virginia. Its just a sign of how difcult (being alone with ones thoughts) can be for people.... This isnt something that most people nd really enjoyable. At least, thats the case for peo ple not trained in techniques like meditation, Wilson and co-au thors say in a paper released Thursday by the journal Science In a series of experiments, col lege students left their cellphones and other distractions behind and spent six to 15 minutes alone in a sparsely furnished room on campus. The experience was not exactly heaven. On a 9-point scale of en joyment, their average rating was about in the middle. And about half the participants gave it a rat ing at the half-way mark or below. The most startling experiment involved the electric shock. Stu dents rst shocked themselves in the ankle and rated how un pleasant that was. Once they were left alone, 12 of 18 men and six of 24 women shocked themselves again. Iraqi Kurdish leader call for independence AP FILE PHOTO Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani listens to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting at the presidential palace in Irbil, Iraq. Study shows some SeaWorld mammals survive longer in captivity AP FILE PHOTO SeaWorld trainer Ryan Faulkner, left, with killer whale Melia and Michelle Shoemaker, right, with killer whale Kayla work on a routine for a show at the theme park in Orlando. Ukraines president shakes up military Scientists find that just thinking by yourself isnt much fun

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A7 561 SalonMarlenes HairFull Ser vice Salon35 234 336 63 Color Hair Cut & Conditioner Re g.$7500No w$5500Lady s Hair Cut Reg.$2000Now$1200Call Lilly to schedule one of these specials Af for dable ~ Seniors We lcome Ask About Our Per man ent Make-Up Specials! Marlenesrf nt Dollar Stor e b nt t Southridge Plaza www.dailycommercial.com Diversions 352-365-8208 features@dailycommercial.com BRIDGE How to play: Fill in the blank squares with the numbers 1 through 9 so that each horizontal row, vertical column and nine-square sub-grid contains no repeated numbers. Puzzles range in difculty from one to six stars. The solution to todays puz zle will be in tomorrows paper. YESTERDAYS SOLUTION Today is Friday, July 4 the 185th day of 2014. There are 180 days left in the year. This is Independence Day. Todays Highlight in History : On July 4, 1776, the Dec laration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Fri day, July 4, 2014 : This year you see a sit uation far differently. Your willingness to adjust and change direction allows more positive happenings to occur. You also are like ly to see far more money make its way into your bank account. If you are single, you could meet someone special at any point, start ing right now. Though this person might not be Mr. or Ms. Right, you will enjoy your time together. If you are attached, the two of you will make a major purchase together. Detach more of ten, rather than get into ar guments. LIBRA is always gracious. ARIES (March 21-April 19) Youll have a spring in your step as you greet the day. A confrontation with someone could mar the moment, if you let it. A loved one might need a certain amount of support and feedback. Be careful, as this person tends to be needy. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Youll wake up and re alize what you need to do. Detach, and you will see how you can enjoy your self more. You could discov er that others will be happy to pitch in. Recognize what is going on with a friend. Check in with this person. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Your imagination could support you in becoming the center of the party or barbecue. Your sense of humor will come out when dealing with friends and loved ones. How you han dle a problem could deter mine how the rest of the day goes. CANCER (June 21-July 22) You might want to see a situation differently from how others see it. Be aware of how much of it is fanta sy and how much is reality. Distorting a situation ulti mately could cause a prob lem. Surround yourself with music and people. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You could be more in touch with your feelings than you realize. Understand your limits within your immediate circle. Try to work through an issue. Check out sev eral parties, if thats what you want to do. Enjoy old friends, but have fun mak ing new ones, too. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You might want to in dulge a friend or loved one for no other reason than its what you want to do. Youll enjoy just watching the oth er partys reaction. Do not hesitate to stop at a bar becue or two and visit with friends and family mem bers. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Your smile and caring will light up a loved ones face. You could have a similar re action from your friends as well. Dote on all the people you want to dote on. Maxi mize the moment. Avoid get ting into a tiff with a loved one. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Know when to pull back and relax. Your life seems to move at such a hectic pace that you have difculty slowing down at times. Take today for you. Dont feel pressured to do anything you do not want to do. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21) Try to use today to eliminate potential reworks between friends. Go through the holiday barbecue rou tines. A loved one might do everything he or she can to get your attention. Let it happen; meanwhile, enjoy your friends. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19) Others are likely to seek you out and ask you to join them for an adventure. Be willing to drop in, but also make it a point to fol low your familys Fourth of July traditions. A conversa tion could become nothing less than awkward. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18) You will want to be more forthright about a problem you are dealing with. You might think that others are causing you this issue. Take an overview, and you will see a much dif ferent scenario. Get out and see friends who usually are not around. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Deal with key people di rectly. That extra effort will make all the difference in what goes on. Relate on an individual level, and youll bypass a problem. Laughter suddenly could erupt. The unexpected plays a signi cant role in the day. HOROSCOPES TODAY IN HISTORY DEAR ABBY: Two years ago I was involved in an unhealthy relationship for me and my children. Despite what every one said, I gave him the benet of the doubt. He ended up assaulting me and my kids. For two months I struggled with de pression, and I admit I wasnt the responsi ble parent I should have been. Child Protective Services took the chil dren. I hold myself ac countable for my ac tions and my failure. My parents are an gry with me because of poor choices I made in the past and treat me like the black sheep of the family. Granted, my mother, brother and I all have issues stemming from the past, but Im tired of playing the guilt card, tired of playing the victim and tired of not having my family back me up at a time when I need their support to re gain custody of my kids. I miss my family and what good times we did have. How do I even be gin to put the pieces back together on a very broken family? THE BLACK SHEEP DEAR BLACK SHEEP: Fix ing your broken family is something all of you must be willing to work on together, or it wont be successful. Because your mother and broth er are unwilling, what you need to do is start xing yourSELF. Regaining custo dy will depend upon your ability to estab lish your independence, support your children and yourself nancial ly, and start counseling to deal with your issues so you wont get into an other destructive, abu sive relationship. It will take work and time, but if you can do it and I think you can your mother and brother will respect you for it. And you will be stronger and healthier because you will no longer be be cause you will no longer be so needy. DEAR ABBY: I have been dating Gene for three years, living together for a year and a half. Were both divorced and love each other very much. Our biggest prob lem is, he doesnt keep a normal schedule. Gene eats at odd hours, exercises at the strang est times and will stay awake til the wee hours of the morning, then crash for a day or so. He seems unfazed by this wackiness. Hes respon sible, holds a good job and comes from a terrif ic family, but his habits are taking a toll on me. There are days when I want him home for din ner, or I want to cuddle with him. I want a nor mal schedule. This is tricky because I have ac cepted his lifestyle and now the brakes have come on for me. Gene doesnt understand my sudden change of atti tude, and frankly, nei ther do I. Do I have only two choices accept him for who he is or nd someone who follows a more convention al schedule? I love him so much that leaving would be very hard to do. WANTS A NORMAL LIFE DEAR WANTS: It would be interesting to know what Gene does for a living. Does he work in a casino? Show business? Its possible your change in attitude has come about because you now realize that you might be living his un conventional lifestyle for the rest of your life. Compromises you could make on a temporary basis can seem daunt ing when you see theyll be permanent. If you need some one who lives his life on a normal schedule, one of you will have to make some changes. You will either have to accept this as your fu ture or Gene will have to change his lifestyle. Be cause he seems to thrive on the schedule hes liv ing on, the adjustment may be very difcult for him. TO MY READERS: Have a happy, healthy and safe Fourth of July, everyone! LOVE, ABBY Dear Abby is written by Abi gail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was found ed by her mother, Pauline Phil lips. Write Dear Abby at www. DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069. Familys anger over womans past mistakes still lingers JEANNE PHILLIPS DEAR ABBY JACQUELINE BIGAR BIGARS STARS

Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL A9 YOUR EDITORIAL BOARD STEVE SKAGGS ....................................... PUBLISHER TOM MCNIFF .................................. EXECUTIVE EDITOR SCOTT CALLAHAN ................................. NEWS EDITOR WHITNEY WILLARD .......................... COPY DESK CHIEF GENE PACKWOOD ..................... EDITORIAL CARTOONIST Voices www.dailycommercial.com The newspaper of choice for Lake and Sumter counties since 1875 EDITORIALS Editorials are the consensus opinion of the editorial board, not any individual. They are written by the editorial staff but are not signed. Local editorials are published Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. COLUMNS Columns are the opinion of the writer whose byline and picture appears with them. They do not necessarily reect the opinion of the newspaper, and are chosen to represent a diver sity of views. If you would like to submit a guest column on a local, state or national issue, email your submission to letters@dailycommercial. com, or mail it to Voices, P.O. Box 490007, Leesburg, FL 347490007. Guest columns should be limited to 550 words in length. The writer also must submit a recent photo to be published with the column, as well as a brief biographical sketch. HAVE YOUR SAY The Daily Commercial invites you to write letters to the editor. Letters should be no longer than 350 words. They must be original, signed with the full name of the writer, and include the writers address and telephone number for verication. We reserve the right to edit for length. Letters also will be edited for grammar, clarity, taste and libel. We accept no more than two letters per month from the same writer. No open letters, form letters or copies of letters to third parties will be published. We do not publish unsigned letters. Submissions are not returned. We retain the right to archive and republish any material submitted for publication. You can submit your letters by: Email (preferred) to: letters@dailycommercial.com By regular mail to: Voices P.O. Box 490007 Leesburg, FL 34749-0007 By fax to: 325-365-1951 T here are many ways to lose freedom conquering armies, surrendering with out a ght. Unfortunately, we are currently surrendering our freedom, not to a foreign power, but to our own government. The growth, reach, and cost of big government is happen ing before our eyes and erod ing our liberty, largely because too many Americans are not fa miliar with the brilliant system of government our Founders es tablished. Progressives prefer a living Constitution, which is constantly changing to conform to their ideology. What it is not is the Constitution established by the Founders. In a comprehensive publica tion, The Roots of Liberty: Un locking the Federalist Papers, edited by Scott D. Cosenza and Claire M. Grifn, it attempts to remind us of the Founders intent and why their vision, if not renewed by each generation, will quickly fade, America along with it. Tim Donner, president of One Generation Away, which, ac cording to its website, is com mitted to restoring, strengthen ing and preserving the vision of a free America by applying our founding principles to the issues of today, (and on whose board I serve as an unpaid member), published the book through its Cornerstone Project, says Roots has so far been wel comed by public and private schools in six states. For those of a certain age, The Roots of Liberty will remind us of our high school civics class es, but as government continues to expand and President Obama increasingly ignores the bound aries placed on the Executive Branch, it will serve as a needed reminder of what makes Ameri ca unique in the world and how it can be quickly destroyed if sufcient attention is not paid to our founding principles. What should attract young people to The Roots of Liberty is that the editors have updat ed the 18th-century language, using instead paraphrases and modern words that will resonate in contemporary ears, without harming its original meaning. Heres one example: (James) Madison supported dividing the national government in a way such that each branch in and of itself would be a type of safe guard against tyranny. Because each branch of government was simultaneously separate and in terdependent, it had to work to gether with the other branches in order to achieve the goals of the national government. And Madisons words: To what expedient then shall we nally resort for maintaining in practice the necessary parti tion of power among the sever al departments, as laid down in the constitution? The only an swer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior struc ture of the government, as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places. The book then succinctly lists the powers each branch of gov ernment is given in order that each branch might be a check on the other. The Founders un derstood that human nature had to be controlled, lest the temp tations of power destroy both leader and country. Ruling by at, as President Obama seems to be doing, like vowing to accomplish immigra tion reform on his own, even in the face of multiple setbacks by the checking Supreme Court, is in violation of the Consti tution, as one can read in this analysis of The Federalist Pa pers, the philosophical founda tion of our constitutional gov ernment. Call it Americas DNA. In the chapter The Powers Delegated to the Federal Gov ernment Are Few and Dened, discussing the doctrine of enu merated powers, the writers say: By virtue of the doctrine, the Constitution of the United States establishes a government of delegated, enumerated and thus limited powers. Does this resemble our pres ent government? In the foreword, the authors write: The ultimate goal of our project is to strengthen Ameri cas civil society by helping our future leaders understand that the principles embedded in the U.S. Constitution are as rele vant today as they were when the Constitution was ratied in 1789. The Roots of Liberty will re mind Americans of where our country came from and where it is headed if we dont embrace the brilliance of those who be queathed it to us. Cal Thomas latest book is What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stron ger America is available in bookstores now. Readers may email Cal Thom as at tcaeditors@tribune.com. OTHER VOICES Cal Thomas TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES Americas DNA: The Federalist Papers gets a modern update for new readers T he U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that for some businesses, religious life begins at incorporation. With a 5-4 split vote, the high court said that closely held for-prot companies could invoke First Amendment religious freedom to avoid paying for four types of contraception under the Affordable Care Act. The dissenting justices marveled at the breadth of legal implications and religious in vocations this interpretation can be expected to invite. Lower courts had said the religious liberties defense by Hobby Lobby Stores and Conesto ga Wood Specialties did not apply to compa nies simply in business to make money. The court majority said that ies in the face of modern corporate law, and the rights that accrue to closely held companies with lim ited stock owned by a small number of peo ple. That includes, but is not limited to, fami ly-owned companies. This was about health care, and a womans right to all elements of that coverage and pro tection, including reproductive health care. This Taliban-light ruling targets females by letting employers religious values dictate what is right and proper for their female em ployees health care this, but not that. The majority opinion said the ruling does not provide a shield for employers who cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice. The minority hardly found any comfort in that statement. The invocation of religious of fense is a litany only limited by the imagina tion of defense attorneys. In this case, the attorneys for the craft stores and cabinetmakers bolstered their reli gious argument with their interpretation that intrauterine devices and morning-after pills constituted abortion. If, as the court ruling suggests, the gov ernment could pay for contraception, why stop there? Is this a sly invitation for a Medi care-like single-payer system? That is as im probable as Congress agreeing to expand birth-control coverage. When the court talks about moving ahead without imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion, it is inviting ever more creative claims of violations. This case is an insult to women, and per sonal religious liberty. How will this license to impose ones religious beliefs on others be applied next? Provided by MCT Information Services. A VOICE Justices put mistaken faith in birth control ruling Classic DOONESBURY 1975 What should attract young people to The Roots of Liberty is that the editors have updated the 18th-century language, using instead paraphrases and modern words that will resonate in contemporary ears, without harming its original meaning.

JENNA FRYER Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH It had been 31 years since a driv er won both Daytona races in the same season when Jimmie Johnson pulled off the Sprint Cup Series sweep. A year later, his teammate wants to com plete the feat. But for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Coke Zero 400, he cant race the way he did at Talladega Superspeedway in May. The Daytona 500 winner went to Talladega thinking hed win another restrictor plate race, but instead n ished 26th in a performance that still haunted him Thurs day when he showed up at Daytona International Speed way. Its embarrassing man, I hate to talk about it, Earn hardt said before the rst of two practice sessions for Sat urday nights race. The way we ran and what I chose to do at the end of the race was just uncharac teristic really of anybody that is in the eld trying to com pete. I just got really frustrat ed with the way things were working out for us and lost sight of the overall big picture and what youre out there try ing to do and who all is out there depending on you to do what you need to do. I learned some lessons. Hell attempt to apply the lessons in the 400-miler Sat urday night, where hell most likely race hard and try to lead much the same way he did when he won the sea son-opening Daytona 500. The February race had a fran tic pace because of a rain stoppage that lasted 6 hours, 22 minutes. When the racing resumed, Earnhardt was de termined to win his second Daytona 500. Earnhardt led six times for a race-high 54 laps all after the rain delay and ended a 55-race losing streak that dat ed to 2012 with the win. But at Talladega, he wasnt at all the same racer. Earnhardt led 26 laps ear ly and gambled hed have no SPORTS EDITOR FRANK JOLLEY 352-365-8268 Sports sports@dailycommercial.com B1 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 www.dailycommercial.com NBA: Owner admits errors in Kidd deal / B3 PAUL BARNEY SPORTS WRITER J uly Fourth was al ways my dads fa vorite holiday. If you were ever to go to one of his parties, it would be yours, too. I know its my favorite. But ever since my dads passing in 2011, Independence Day hasnt been the same. That doesnt mean Ive forgotten all the memories. The Fourth of July was no ordinary day in our house. It was tradi tion. It was the party of the summer, and every body we knew wanted to be a part of it. It was a continuation from my older brother Wills birthday the day before, which was sort of the pre-party. It was preparing the house a week in ad vance for what would be an all-day and allnight celebration. It was setting up the gazebo, tables and chairs the morning of, making sure every body who came had a place to sit, eat and talk amongst friends and family. It was stocking up on more chips, hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks and vegetable trays that could feed a family of 10 for a week. It was making the two-hour round trip to Sandusky, Ohio, and back to Cleve land to buy reworks, only to blow them up in the middle of the street. Bottle rockets, recrackers, a quar ter-stick of dynamite, a half-stick of dynamite, parachutes, Roman candles you name it, we had it. Yep, even snakes and sparklers. The neighbors across the street would sit out side in front of their house just to see our July 4th brings out mixed feelings FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writer frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com Clay Tew asked his team to have a players only meeting to decide if they wanted to win. They did and they hav ent lost since. Now, the Mount Dora Babe Ruth League 12-under All-Star base ball team, coached by Tew, is preparing to play in the state tournament at 11 a.m. on July 10 against North Fort Myers in Palm Beach Gardens. It will m ark the rst time a 12U baseball team from PHOTO COURTESY OF CLAY TEW Members of the Mount Dora Babe Ruth 12U All-Star team pose for pictures. The will play on July 10 in the state tournament in Palm Beach Gardens. Mount Dora teams prepare for postseason tourneys BEN CURTIS / AP Eugenie Bouchard runs to play a return against Simona Halep during Thursdays womens singles seminal action at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London. HOWARD FENDRICH Associated Press LONDON Eugenie Bouchard could have lost her focus after the fourth game of her Wimbledon seminal Thursday, when play was de layed for ve minutes during Simona Haleps medical time out for a left ankle injury. Bouchard also could have gotten sidetracked when action was halted again, smack-dab in the middle of a tiebreaker, because an ill spectator was being attended to in the Centre Court stands. And everything really could have unraveled for Bouchard later, as she let match point after match point slip away. Able to steel herself time and again, the singular-of-pur pose Bouchard became Can adas rst Grand Slam nalist by beating French Open run ner-up Halep 7-6 (5), 6-2 at the All England Club. Im able to not worry about the distractions, the 20-yearold Bouchard said. What I do well is I really dont let it get to me or affect me. Canada gets Slam finalist at Wimbledon SEE BARNEY | B2 SEE TEAMS | B2 TERRY RENNA / AP Dale Earnhardt Jr. prepares to get in his car during practice on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach. Earnhardt still embarrassed over finish at Talladega Little E looks for sweep at Daytona to erase embarrassment FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writer frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com The Leesburg Light ning cant seem to get a break from Mother Na ture or the Florida Col legiate Summer League. Leesburg was tagged with another home rainout on Thursday af ter a torrential down pour ooded the eld as it was being pre pared for the nal game against College Park. The Lightning hope to rebound from the rainout at 6 p.m. today when they host Winter Park at Pat Thomas Sta dium-Buddy Lowe Field in front of what is ex pected to be a capacity crowd. Thursdays rainout added to the sting the Lightning were feel ing after the FCSL an nounced the rosters for Tuesdays All-Star game. League ofcials initial ly placed only four play ers on the North roster for the midsummer clas sic, compared to 13 by the Sanford River Rats, the most from any of the leagues six teams. League ofcials quick ly added a fth Lightning player to the roster, al though that was still the fewest number of rep resentatives from any team. The Leesburg quintet consists of Colby Lusig nan, Shea Pierce, Brett Jones, Brandon Caples, and Kyle Schackne. Lees burg enters todays game with an 11-10 record. D eLand which sports an 8-14 mark, and Col lege Park, at 6-16, had six players apiece picked for the game. Winter Park (15-9 record) had eight representatives chosen, as did Winter Garden (13-11). FCSL ofcials said on the league website the nal rosters for the North and South teams were voted on by league coaches, staff and fans. The North team was made up of players from Leesburg, DeLand and Sanford, while the South team was created with players from Winter Park, Winter Garden and College Park. Sanford, Winter Park, DeLand, and College Park have long been owned or operated by the FCSL. Winter Garden joined the league this year. Leesburg is the only team not owned by the league. Mother Nature leaves Lightning, fans frustrated SEE NASCAR | B2 SEE TENNIS | B2

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B2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 SUN mon tu es we d thurs fri Sa tLeesbur g LightningJune 29Jul y 5Winter GardenAW AY1pmCollege ParkHOME7pmCollege ParkHOME7pmCollege ParkAW AY7pmWinter ParkHOME6pmWinter ParkHOME7pm TENNIS Wimbledon Thursday At The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club London Purse: $42.5 million (Grand Slam) Surface: Grass-Outdoor Singles Women Seminals Petra Kvitova (6), Czech Republic, def. Lucie Safarova (23), Czech Republic, 7-6 (6), 6-1. Eugenie Bouchard (13), Canada, def. Simona Halep (3), Ro mania, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Doubles Men Quarternals Leander Paes, India, and Radek Stepanek (5), Czech Re public, def. Daniel Nestor, Canada, and Nenad Zimonjic (3), Serbia, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Vasek Pospisil, Canada, and Jack Sock, United States, def. Alexander Peya, Austria, and Bruno Soares (2), Brazil, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4. Women Quarternals Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci (2), Italy, def. Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua (6), Australia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0. Timea Babos, Hungary, and Kristina Mladenovic (14), France, def. Alla Kudryavtseva, Russia, and Anastasia Rodi onova (11), Australia, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Andrea Hlavackova, Czech Republic, and Zheng Jie (9), China, def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia, and Lucie Safarova, Czech Republic, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. GOLF PGA Tour The Greenbrier Classic Thursday At The Old White TPC White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Purse: $6.5 million Yardage: 7,287; Par 70 (34-36) First Round a-denotes amateur Jonas Blixt 33-31 64 James Hahn 32-33 65 Jason Bohn 31-34 65 Joe Durant 31-34 65 Chris Kirk 32-33 65 D.A. Points 32-33 65 Patrick Rodgers 30-35 65 Jim Renner 30-35 65 Danny Lee 32-33 65 Sang-Moon Bae 34-32 66 Michael Thompson 33-33 66 Steve Stricker 34-32 66 Kevin Na 34-32 66 Troy Merritt 31-35 66 Chris Stroud 33-33 66 Pat Perez 33-33 66 Chad Collins 34-32 66 Michael Putnam 32-35 67 Davis Love III 32-35 67 Ben Curtis 34-33 67 Charles Howell III 33-34 67 Patrick Reed 32-35 67 Charlie Beljan 32-35 67 David Lingmerth 31-36 67 Tyrone Van Aswegen 32-35 67 Kevin Chappell 34-33 67 Luke Guthrie 33-34 67 Robert Allenby 32-35 67 Keegan Bradley 33-34 67 Bobby Wyatt 33-34 67 Gonzalo Fdez-Castano 31-37 68 Mark Wilson 33-35 68 Marc Leishman 34-34 68 Woody Austin 36-32 68 Scott Langley 33-35 68 Ricky Barnes 33-35 68 Robert Streb 31-37 68 John Daly 34-34 68 Brice Garnett 33-35 68 Will Wilcox 34-34 68 Jim Herman 34-34 68 Billy Hurley III 32-36 68 Tim Wilkinson 33-35 68 Camilo Villegas 32-36 68 Johnson Wagner 34-34 68 Angel Cabrera 34-34 68 J.B. Holmes 34-34 68 Bubba Watson 35-33 68 Steven Bowditch 33-35 68 David Hearn 33-35 68 Justin Hicks 33-35 68 Jamie Lovemark 35-33 68 Chad Campbell 34-35 69 James Driscoll 34-35 69 Brian Davis 34-35 69 Jeff Maggert 34-35 69 David Toms 35-34 69 Bill Haas 34-35 69 Troy Kelly 32-37 69 Trevor Immelman 33-36 69 Patrick Cantlay 33-36 69 Greg Chalmers 34-35 69 Gary Woodland 33-36 69 Stephen Ames 35-34 69 Steve Marino 33-36 69 Josh Teater 32-37 69 Bud Cauley 32-37 69 Wes Roach 35-34 69 Andrew Loupe 35-34 69 TV 2 DAY AUTO RACING 9 a.m. NBCSN Formula One, practice for British Grand Prix, at Silverstone, England 3 p.m. FS1 NASCAR, Nationwide Series, pole qualifying for Firecracker 250, at Daytona Beach 5 p.m. FS1 NASCAR, Sprint Cup, pole qualifying for Coke Zero 400, at Daytona Beach 7:30 p.m. ESPN2 NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Firecracker 250, at Daytona Beach GOLF 9:30 a.m. TGC European PGA Tour, Open de France, second round, part II, at Paris 12:30 p.m. TGC Web.com Tour, Nova Scotia Open, second round, at Halifax, Nova Scotia 3 p.m. TGC PGA Tour, The Greenbrier Classic, second round, at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 11 a.m. MLB, WGN Chicago Cubs at Washington 3 p.m. ESPN2 N.Y. Yankees at Minnesota 7 p.m. ESPN Tampa Bay at Detroit FS-Florida Miami at Colorado SOCCER Noon ESPN2 FIFA, World Cup, quarternals, France vs. Germany, at Rio de Janeiro 4 p.m. ESPN FIFA, World Cup, quarternals, Brazil vs. Colombia, at Fortaleza, Brazil 8:30 p.m. NBCSN MLS, N.Y. at Houston 11 p.m. NBCSN MLS, Portland at Los Angeles TENNIS 8 a.m. ESPN Wimbledon, mens seminals, at London SCOREBOARD F CSL STANDINGS W L .Pct GB Sanford 15 8 .652 Winter Park 15 9 .625 .5 Winter Garden 13 11 .542 2.5 Leesburg 11 10 .524 3 DeLand 8 14 .364 6.5 College Park 6 16 .273 8.5 THURSDAYS GAMES College Park at Leesburg, ccd. rain DeLand at Sanford, late Winter Park at Winter Garden, late TODAYS GAMES Winter Park at Leesburg, 6 p.m. DeLand at College Park, 1 p.m. Sanford at Winter Garden, 1 p.m. reworks display. It was getting up ear ly the day after with a broom, dustpan and a few garbage bags to clean up those reworks. One time we lit off a 20,000-pack of recrack ers. Do you know how long it takes to sweep 20,000 recrackers off the street, and not just off the street, but in our front yard and the front yard three houses down? It took about 20 minutes for them to blow up. Traf c was backed up ve cars deep waiting for it to end. Yeah, those people didnt like us too much. If youre wondering, the answer is yes. The cops were called on us quite a few times. In fact, I cant remember a time in which the cops didnt show up at our house at least once. It was going to the park just beyond our backyard to watch the reworks that were being blown off at another park a few blocks away. It was jamming out to country music that could be heard from all the way up the street. Ah, yes, I can still hear all those great tunes. Alan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn, Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Martina Mc Bride, Tim McGraw and my dads favorite George Jones. It was seeing my next door neighbor and my dads best friend, Mike, telling me to open my hands as he proceeded to drop a few packs of re crackers in them. It was laughing hysterically when a cop asked if anybody was lighting off reworks and we told him no. Sure enough, soon after we said that, you could hear Mike lighting some off in the backyard. It was watching two guys get into a Roman candle ght. It sounds ex actly how you imagine it does. I wish I was mak ing this up. Thankfully, the both of them couldnt aim. It was all me and my brothers friends coming over for Beer Olympics, where teams of two would compete in a number of games in a bracket-style format including corn hole, sticks and cups, lad der golf and KanJam all while consuming your fa vorite beverage. And it was watching my dad while all of this was happening. The man was a true host. He stood in front of that grill from sunrise to sunset, throwing on more hot dogs and hamburg ers, and always asking if anyone wanted cheese on their burger. He made sure everyone was greeted when they ar rived and had a full stom ach when they left. My dads presence is missed every day, but es pecially on July Fourth. To day is the rst time in my life I wont be partaking in Fourth of July festivities, but Im proud my broth er has since carried on the tradition. Just like dad, he throws a great party. And even though my dad is gone, the music never stopped. Take it away, George. Paul Barney is a columnist with the Daily Commercial. Write to him at Paul.Barney@dailycommercial.com. BARNEY FROM PAGE B1 Mount Dora has played in the state tournament. These kids wanted to play for a state champion ship, said Tew. Theyve played and practiced with a lot of heart and desire and that has gotten them through districts. Im very proud of them. Tew said the team is made up of players from the leagues three 12U teams the Reds, Cubs and Braves. Players were chosen based on their in terest in playing and on the observations of coaches during the spring season. In its rst game in the district tournament in June, Mount Dora suffered a loss. Tew said he noticed a lot of heads hung low af ter the defeat, but he be lieved the players not the coaches needed to be the ones to decide if they had it in them to con tinue. The coaches got the players together and let them meet by themselves for about 10 or 15 min utes, Tew said. When they nished, they came back to us and said, We want to win. That was something they had to g ure out for themselves and they picked themselves back up and went back to work. Since that meeting, they havent lost. To help offset the costs of its trip down state, in cluding food and lodging, the team has set up a site on www.gofundme.com/ Mt-Dora-12U-allstars to accept donations. As of Thursday afternoon, the team had collected $585 on the website towards its goal of $5,000. In addition, players will be at Sidelines sports bar in Mo unt Dora between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sat urday to wash cars for do nations and the team will take part in a hat drop from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sunday at Winn-Dixie in Tavares. The Mount Dora 16U softball All-Star team won its distrct tournament and nished third at state last week in Lake City. Now, the team is preparing for the Southeast Regional tour nament in Morganton, N.C. in two weeks. Players are practicing to prepare for the tourna ment and working to raise money to pay for the trip. All donations will help pay for hotel rooms, gas, and food. Donations are being tak en at gofundme.com/ax t3r8. As of Thursday after noon, the team had $45 towards its goal of $6,000. TEAMS FROM PAGE B1 PHOTO COURTESY OF MAUREEN SHORT Mount Doras 16U softball team poses for a team picture. trouble making it back through the trafc when he was shufed to the rear. When it became clear he had his work cut out for him, Earnhardt opted to take it easy and nurse his Chevrolet home for a clean nish. Fans were livid. I think I got real selsh at Talladega and what the re sult and how the result af fected anyone I never took into account, he said. I re ally just was out there think ing more about me and what I thought and what I wanted to do and how frus trated I was. I forgot that theres a team behind me depending on me and a lot of fans there to see us race and show up to spend their hard earned money. Denitely was a dif cult thing to go through. Earnhardt has eight wins at plate tracks four be hind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the active-driver lead and wants another win. John son, who goes into Saturday night with three wins in the last six races, believes his teammate has a shot at the sweep. Before Johnson did it last year, the last driver to sweep Daytona was Bobby Allison in 1982. If I dont have a chance to win the race, I wouldnt mind if he did, Johnson said. Hes going to be fast. Hes going to be strong and have a very good opportu nity to win. That stat went 30 years for a reason. Its not easy because in plate rac ing, anything can happen. Hes the one who gave me that phrase about If I make it to the white, and youre in the picture, you have a shot at winning. If he can make it to the white he will de nitely be a threat. Earnhardt is aware of the ability to sweep, and recog nizes how difcult it would be to complete. I would love to sweep the races at Daytona because that is a cool thing, but I just love winning here, he said. NASCAR FROM PAGE B1 In only her sixth major tourna ment, the 13th-seeded Bouch ard will play for the championship Saturday against 2011 Wimble don winner Petra Kvitova. The sixth-seeded Kvitova defeated No. 23 Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 6-1 in the rst all-Czech womens Slam semi nal. I know how (it feels) when you hold the trophy, Kvitova said, so I really want to win my second title here, and I will do everything (so) I can. Waiting in a hallway before walk ing on court, Kvitova and Safarova chatted, a pair of longtime friends who train at the same club back home. From 6-all in the tiebreak er, Kvitova won 31 of 48 points the rest of the way, using her overpow ering serve and forehand that work so well on grass to improve to 6-0 against Safarova. In a year that zero American men or women reached Wimbledons round of 16 for the rst time in 103 years, another Canadian, Mi los Raonic, will try join Bouchard as a nalist. The mens seminals today are old guard vs. new guard matchups: seven-time champion Roger Federer against Raonic, and top-seeded Novak Djokovic against Grigor Dimitrov. As of now, the 24-year-old Kvitova is the only man or woman born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam title. If Bouchard becomes the second, she also would be the youngest ma jor champion since Maria Sharapo va was 19 at the 2006 U.S. Open. TENNIS FROM PAGE B1

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C2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 (Free Consultation) SUMMER DENT AL SPECIALSNEW PA TIENT CASH OFFER.Expires 7-31-14CLEANING/EXAMS/X-RA YS ONL Y $49Exam D0140/Xray D0220/Prophy D1110 (in absence of periodontal disease)SINGLE CROWN ONL Y $499 rfn tb n n b nCUSTOM DENTURES (D5211 OR D5212) t $550 each $750 each $950 each $1,200 eachTOOTH EXTRACTION ONL Y $175 tb r rn tb n nFULL SIZE DENT AL IMPLANTImplant+Abutment+Crown+Exam+Xrays NOW ONL Y $2,300 (Reg. $3,500)MOUNT DORA DENT AL GROUP2390 W. Old Hwy 441, Ste 2 Mount Dora FL 32757352-383-3368The Villages Dental CareThe Villages North (Hwy 441)352.753.6365 The Villages Dental GroupThe Villages We st (Hwy 301)352.748.7645 D004210 Tu es da y Ju ly 8th, 2014 at 3 PM N owhere on earth is there a more enthusias tic celebration than on the Fourth of July in a small American town. Everyone comes out for the parade and about half the citizens are in it, either marching or providing costumes or oats. When I was a little girl in North Apollo, Pa., the parade was the high point of the day. This is not to discount the excitement of setting off recrackers. My sisters and I were only allowed to have the little Lady Fingers, but we thought we were really reckless lighting those tiny explosives. Before the Fourth, our dad usually found us some punk (a piece of decayed wood that smolders when lit). He thought it was safer than lighting a match. Big brother Herb was allowed to have big recrackers. For the Fourth of July pa rade, all the local volun teer re departments got out their equipment and pol ished it until the chrome sparkled in the sunlight. They would put on their best uniforms and march behind the re truck. Usually the re chief would ride in the truck. In North Apollo, the re chief was usually my dad. Before North Apollo had its own parade we attended the parade in Apollo. I remem ber standing on the curb along Moore Avenue hang ing on to a light pole to keep from being pushed into the street by the crowd. Every one was so excited and we all wanted to be the rst to sight the beginning of the parade. As soon as we heard that martial music we strained to see the bands march ing down the street, the high stepping drum major ettes with their white tas seled boots, short skirts and hats, twirling their batons, the ag carriers, the drum mers marking cadence and the smartly uniformed band playing their hearts out. Moore Avenue in those days was lined with two-sto ry houses with porches on the second oor. I envied those folks who could sit on their second-oor porch es and watch the parade without having to ght the crowd. After the parade, every one went to their homes or the groves for family pic nics. There were hot dogs to roast over open res, pota to salad and chocolate cake. We didnt have grills back then. We built a re in a re pit, stuck our hot dogs on sharpened sticks and roast ed them in the re. We n ished by roasting marshmal lows. Remember how good they tasted? The nal treat of the day was the reworks display. We had a great place to watch from our front porch. The town of Vandergrift was on a hill just across the river and they put on their reworks display as soon as the sun went down. Did I mention sparklers? Each of us girls had our own box of sparklers that we guarded from our pilfering sisters. We would light them and lean over the railing and twirl them for the benet of anyone who might be walk ing down the street. Did we know why we were celebrating? Yes, we knew. Our teachers in the little school house on top of the hill made certain we knew that the Fourth of July was the celebration of the birth day of our country and all that it stood for. We knew about the Revo lutionary War and the Decla ration of Independence. We knew how our government was structured and why. We knew that all men were created equal and that our rights were granted by God himself and that our govern ment was supposed to en sure that those rights were given to all equally. Sometimes those that gov ern forget, but we dont for get. There are many who point out our warts but we know them all too well. We know the great experiment that is America would not have been possible with out the shedding of inno cent blood. We know that mistakes have been made and correction is sometimes costly, but the ideal of jus tice for all is what makes us strong. We are a country of law and we return to that rule of law when our free doms are threatened. We have met many challenges. On July 4, 1976, our coun try marked her 200th birth day with many spectacu lar events. On Bunker Hill in Boston, Revolutionary War buffs replayed the fa mous battle in full uniform. A otilla of tall sailing ships made their way from New port, R.I., to New York har bor. A cross-country wagon train made its way through South Carolina. Philadel phia, where the Second Con tinental Congress adopted the Declaration of Indepen dence on July 4, 1776, host ed a year-long party. Over In dependence Hall where John Hancock signed the Decla ration 200 years before, red, white and blue reworks ex ploded. That spirit is alive today in small-town America. Enjoy the parades, the high step ping majorettes, the re works and remember. Nina Gilfert can be reached at ninagilfert@yahoo.com. Small towns celebrate the Fourth of July in style NINA GILFERT FROM THE PORCH STEPS SUBMITTED PHOTO The Sumter County Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting event recently celebrating the rst anniversary of Visiting Nurse Services of Central Florida in Wildwood, providing home health care, skilled nursing and physical, occupational and speech therapies. For information, call 352-748-1867. VISITING NURSE SERVICES CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY SUBMITTED PHOTO Sterling House representatives present a check to Meals on Wheels in an effort to help deliver meals to those recovering from a stay at Sterling House in Tavares. Inspired by Lynn Haynes, executive director at Sterling House, a health and wellness fair open to the public was held with 24 local community members giving funds totaling $950. MEALS ON WHEELS FUNDRAISER SUBMITTED PHOTO Congratulations to the newest members of the National Adult Education Honor Society at Lake Technical College: Supavadee Barton, Edward Bertucci, Whenzdei Bixby, Le Mac Blount, Nicholas Bolden, Mario Crespo, Shanesha Crosby, Angela Ditch, Kendricka Gaines, Alesha Garcia, Pattiann Gonzalez, Piper Halliday, Blanca Hernandez, Linda Hester, Maurice Hill, Lauren Hoffman, Ylian Johnson, Eric Mokwa, Judith Moore, Veronica Ramirez, John Raymond, Patricia Ramos, Ligia Sanchez, Jeremy Shorter, William Solis, Meenaz Thanawala, Maria Norma Valerio, Maria Vasquez, Anna Wilbur and Charlean Wilson. For information about Lake Tech, go to www.laketech.org or call 352-589-2250. ADULT EDUCATION HONOR SOCIETY WINNERS TODAY LEESBURG BASEBALL AND FIREWORKS AT VENE TIAN GARDENS: Begins at 6 p.m. with food, mu sic and baseball. Go to www.leesburgpartner ship.com. ROTARY CLUB STAR SPANGLED BANNER INDE PENDENCE DAY PARADE IN MOUNT DORA: At 10 a.m. downtown. Parade participants should ar rive by 9 a.m. Go to www. lakecountyrotary.org for information, or call 352267-2879. TAVARES INDEPEN DENCE DAY CELEBRA TION: From 5 to 9:30 p.m., Wooton Park, 100 E. Ruby St. Entertainment and food vendors. Call 352-0742-6319, or go to www.tavares.org. EUSTIS RED, WHITE AND BLUE 4TH OF JULY CELE BRATION: Events begin at noon and continue to 9 p.m., with live mu sic, food, Day of Service event for military per sonnel and fireworks. Call 352-357-7969 or go to www.eustis.org for de tails. FRIDAY NIGHT JAZZ AT THE LAKESIDE INN IN MOUNT DORA: From 7 to 10 p.m. with trio, Terry Harr on piano, Barry Smith on drums and Larry Jacoby on bass. SATURDAY PATRIOTIC FAMILY FUN DAY AT DADE BATTLEFIELD: From 4 to 8 p.m., with games and contests at 5 p.m., pet parade at 6 p.m. Music, ice cream and food available for purchase, 7200 county Road 603 in Bushnell. COMMUNITY CALENDAR SEE EVENTS | C3

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Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL C3 Call 352-793-4781 for de tails. LEESBURG MASONIC LODGE NO. 58 A&FM FIRST SATURDAY BREAKFAST: From 8 to 9:30 a.m., 200 Ritchey Road in Lees burg. Cost is $6 per per son. MAXS PET CONNECTION ADOPTION EVENT: Every Saturday, PetSmart, 534 N. U.S. Highway 27/441 in Lady Lake, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 352-669-2855 for details. REGISTRATION FOR 6TH ANNUAL BACK 2 SCHOOL BASH IN WILDWOOD: From 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m., Gods Glory Ministries, 206 N. Main St., Wildwood. Free food and games. Back 2 School Bash is Aug. 2. Call 352-461-6687 for details. SUNDAY THE SUNDAY NITE DANCE AT RECREATION PLANTATION: From 7 to 10 p.m., 609 County Road 466 and Rolling Acres Road in Lady Lake. Cost is $10. Everyone wel come. Call 352-304-8672 for information. EUSTIS ELKS LODGE NOI. 1578 SERVE BREAK FAST: At the lodge, 2540 Dora Ave., in Tavares. Cost is $6. Call 352-5892702. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS OPENS AT BAY STREET PLAYERS: Sun day, July 13 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for students, at the State Theatre, 109 N. Bay St., Eustis. Tickets at www. baystreetplayers.org or 352-357-7777. The show contains strong lan guage and may not be suitable for children. MONDAY MR. RICHARD PER FORMS AT THE LIBRARY: Cool songs for kids, Leesburg Public Li brary, 100 E. Main St., at 11 a.m. for all ages. Call 352-728-9790. MOUNT DORA BIBLE SCHOOL K-6 SOCCER SUMMER CAMP BEGINS TODAY: From 9 a.m. to noon, at the football field at the school, 301 W. 13th Ave., in Mount Dora. Cost is $65. Call 352-383-2155 for regis tration and information. TUESDAY ART CLASSES AT LEMA: Creative Art class with Judith Langgood, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday and July 10, 15 and 17, for ages 10-13, Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 1 W. Or ange Ave. Call 352-4832900 for information. MAKING PRINTS WITH JENNIFER HARPER: From 12:30 to 2 p.m., today and July 10, 15, 17 for ages 1013. Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 1 W. Orange Ave. Call 352-483-2900 for cost and information. HONORING THE 238TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST PUBLIC READING OF THE DECLARATION OF IN DEPENDENCE: At the East Lake County Library at 6 p.m., in Sorrento, part of the adult summer read ing program. Call the li brary at 352-383-9980 for details. WEDNESDAY REGISTRATION FOR 6TH ANNUAL BACK 2 SCHOOL BASH IN WILDWOOD: From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 3 to 5 p.m. Gods Glory Ministries, 206 N. Main St., Wildwood. Free food, games and more. Back 2 School Bash takes place on Aug. 2. Call Carolyn Ford at 352-461-6687 for details. WATERCOLOR EXPLO SION WITH JANICE ROANE: From 8:30 to 10 a.m., to day and July 11, 16, 18, Lake Eustis Museum of Art, 1 W. Orange Ave. Call 352-483-2900 for cost and information. For kids age 10-13. ADULT COLORED PEN CIL CLASS AT LAKE EUSTIS MUSEUM OF ART: From noon to 2 p.m., 1 W. Or ange Ave., Eustis. Call 352-483-2900 for cost and information. NORTH LAKE COIN AND CURRENCY CLUB MEET ING: From 6 to 9 p.m., Wildwood Commu nity Center, 6500 Powell Road. Call Don Pitcher at 352-245-5680 for details. 9945 SE Hwy. 42, Summereld 42 4227/441SUMMERFIELD OCALATHE VILLAGES 1229 14th St., Leesburg27/441LEESBURGFRUITLAND PARK 441 HOURSMon-Sat 8 to 6 Sunday 9 to 5 rf nt b WE NEED n T he sixth panel in the 40foot mural about Lees burgs history caused a bit of controversy because of its depiction of Leesburgs Watermelon Festival. The issue surfaced in Jan uary 1985, when T.H. Poole, then president of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wanted the city to remove the scene from the mural. The scene was of a black youth eating a slice of wa termelon. Smith went back and replaced the scene with a composite of ve success ful African Americans about two months later. According to the informa tion accompanying the mu ral, Virgil Hawkins headed the committee, which sug gested the image to replace the original one. The idea conveyed is that today Afri can Americans are doctors, teachers and businessmen. Smith said when he paint ed the mural he didnt have the slightest idea it would of fend and cause a commo tion. In fact, the Leesburg Art Festival, started and run by Smith, was one of the rst art festivals to welcome black artists, according to Smith. It turned out beautifully, he said in a 1993 story a month before he died. Smith and his wife Kath ryn moved to Leesburg af ter he retired from the ad vertising company. He got involved with his local com munity, eventually uttering words that led to the forma tion of the Leesburg Art Fes tival in 1978. Art had always been a way of life for the Father of the Leesburg Art Festival. In the 1984 story, Smith said, An artist is a little like a barber. It doesnt matter where he goes, if he knows his busi ness, knows how to draw or letter, he can nd work. The good Lords kind of bless ed me. I had a wonderful Christian mother. Ive often thought her prayers kept me out of trouble. Back to the mural. Interestingly, I never no ticed until this week that the banner at the top of the pan el still includes Watermel on Festival without any ac companying picture. I also nd it interesting that Leesburg folks always call it the Leesburg Water melon Festival but all the old photographs in the Florida State Archives with banners for Leesburgs festival call it Leesburgs Annual Florida Watermelon Festival. The rst Watermelon Fes tival was held in 1930, and continued to be held each year, interrupted only by the World War II years, until the citys centennial celebration in 1957. One of the popular fea tures of the Watermelon Fes tival was the cutting of free watermelons for all visi tors, supplied by area mel on growers. As growth of this crop moved southward for new ground and earlier crops, it became more dif cult to get watermelons, and the festival was dropped af ter the week-long centennial celebration. In 1961 a new Fun Festival was started, but did not gain the wide popularity of the Watermelon Festival. Leesburgs watermelon history began June 4, 1894 when G.W. Franklin, a Lees burg melon and produce buyer, shipped the rst load of watermelons out of Flori da from Leesburg. About three decades later, watermelon growers decided it was time to celebrate the success of a bumper crop with Leesburgs rst Water melon Festival, held June 25, 1930. Naturally, there was a parade that year and the Co ca-Cola Bottling Compa nys oat won rst prize. A carload of watermelons was provided by growers for the free watermelon cutting, and 1,000 melons were cut for that rst feast. The rst festival crowd drew an estimated 5,000 people. Over the years the crowds grew to about 20,000 in 1952 and an estimated 60,000 in 1958. Margaret Ek dahl of Tampa, Miss Florida in 1930, served as a judge for the rst Watermelon Queen beauty contest. Tommie Hawkins Porter was crowned the rst Watermelon Queen. The festival was put on hold after 1939 because of World War II, but Leesburg was ready for the festivals revival in 1946 after the war. Growers donated truck loads, usually after the main crop was in. They would back their trucks down in the old city ice plant by the end of Sixth Street and stack them up inside to cool them. When the festival was moved in later years to Vene tian Gardens, the watermel ons were kept in the wading pools. The festival program didnt vary much from year to year. It would kick off with a pa rade from Leesburg High School down Main Street, then Canal Street to Ve netian Gardens in the lat er years. The watermel on-eating contest followed the bathing beauty revue. A band concert might accom pany lunch, and the after noon was full of events such as boat races, baseball at Venetian Ball Park and an other band concert. Variety shows or something such as the Tom Thumb Follies, would provide additional en tertainment. The day would be capped off with the beau ty contest, reworks and the coronation dance. Eventually, when water melon growers headed south and there werent enough melons for growers to give away free, the Watermelon Festival was replaced by the Fun Festival, which was re placed by the Leesburg Art Festival. More next week. Rick Reed is a columnist who lives in Mount Dora. To reach him, call 352-383-1458 or email him at ricoh007@aol.com. Murals panel 6 scene a source of controversy PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FLORIDA STATE ARCHIVES Panel 6 of the Leesburg Community Building mural is shown after the Watermelon Festival scene was changed. EVENTS FROM PAGE C2

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C4 DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 JOE MCDONALD Associated Press BEIJING China an nounced another mod est easing Thursday of its currency controls, saying banks will be al lowed to set their own exchange rates in deal ings with customers. The change adds to a series of moves aimed at making Chinas gov ernment-controlled nancial system more market-oriented and ef cient. The United States and other countries have criticized Beijings con trols on the yuan, also called the renminbi. They say the govern ment-set exchange rate is too low, giving Chi nese exporters an un fair price advantage and hurting foreign com petitors. Under the rule change, banks allowed to handle foreign cur rency can set exchange rates for the renminbi by themselves for cus tomers based on market demand and price-set ting ability, the Chi nese foreign currency regulator said in a state ment. Until now, Beijing has set an exchange rate for the yuan each day and then allowed it to uc tuate in a narrow band against the U.S. dollar and other currencies in tightly controlled trad ing. In March, that band was widened, though to only 2 percent. Under the latest change, banks that make a prot by buy ing foreign currencies at one price and sell ing at another could of fer some customers a better deal by narrow ing the margin between those two levels. The regulators statement gave no indication whether they would be allowed to go outside the state-set trading band or by how much. The countrys top eco nomic ofcial, Premier Li Keqiang, promised in an annual policy speech in March to give market forces a decisive role in allocating credit and other resources in the state-dominated econ omy. CURRENCIES Dollar vs. Exchange Pvs Rate Day Yen 102.20 101.82 Euro $1.3609 $1.3656 Pound $1.7151 $1.7163 Swiss franc 0.8934 0.8891 Canadian dollar 1.0634 1.0666 Mexican peso 12.9573 12.9952 Business austin.fuller@dailycommercial.com 352-365-8263 DOW JONES 17,068.26 + 92.02 NASDAQ 4,485.93 + 28.2 S&P 500 1,985.44 + 10.82 GOLD 1,330.90 --SILVER 21.20 + 0.125 CRUDE OIL 103.75 0.73 T-NOTE 10-year 2.65 + 0.02 X www.dailycommercial.com KEN SWEET AP Markets Writer NEW YORK The Dow Jones industrial average topped 17,000 for the rst time Thursday, the indexs rst big 1,000-point mile stone this year, following news that hiring in the U.S. accelerated last month. The market rose from the start of trading after the government reported that U.S. employers hired more employees than investors and economists expect ed. Trading was extremely light, though, and the mar ket closed early ahead of the Fourth of July holiday Friday. Thursdays gains add to what has been a strong month-and-a-half for Wall Street. Along with the Dow hitting 17,000, the Standard & Poors 500 index is ap proaching its own milestone of 2,000. The indexes have risen as a steady stream of good news on jobs and man ufacturing bolsters investor condence. Right now the story is on ward and upward, said Neil Massa, senior trader at John Hancock Asset Manage ment. The Dow rose 92.02 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,068.26. The S&P 500 rose 10.82 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,985.44 and the Nasdaq composite rose 28.19 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,485.93. Investors were encouraged by the latest jobs report from the Department of Labor, which showed U.S. employers added 288,000 workers to their payrolls in June, far more than forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent. The government also said employers hired more people in previous months than reported earlier: 217,000 in May and 304,000 in April. The U.S. economy is now creating around 231,000 jobs each month in 2014, compared to roughly 194,000 a month last year. It topped even some of the most optimistic of fore casts, Massa said. The jobs report is the lat est piece of data to show the U.S. economy contin ues to steadily improve. On Wednesday, the payroll pro cessor ADP said private busi nesses added 281,000 jobs in June, up from 179,000 in May. Also this week the Insti tute for Supply Management said the U.S. manufacturing sector expanded for the 13th consecutive month. While the Dows passing of 17,000 is a notable milestone, most Wall Street profession als dont focus on it. The vast majority of mutual funds and investors use the broad er S&P 500 index as their benchmark for how they are performing. In fact, the Dow has lagged behind the rest of the stock market this year. The index is up 3 percent in 2014 compared with the S&P 500s rise of 7.4 percent. That said, investors should be feeling good about Dow 17,000, Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist with Wells Fargo Advisors, wrote in a note to investors. The stock market has more than recovered from levels seen during the nancial crisis more than ve years ago. Slow and steady can win the race; and it has. The Dows 17,000 mile stone is another reminder of its bull market run. The in dex has climbed more than 10,500 points since its Great Recession low of 6,547.05 on March 9, 2009. Among individual stocks, the pet supply chain PetSmart rose the most in the S&P 500 on Thursday. PetSmart gained $7.48, or 13 percent, to $67.28 after the activist investor rm Jana Partners disclosed a 9.9 per cent stake in the company. Investors sold bonds after the strong jobs report. The yield on the 10-year Trea sury note rose to 2.64 per cent from 2.63 percent late Wednesday. Bond yields rise when prices fall. Thursday was the slow est trading day of the year for stocks. Roughly 1.9 bil lion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Ex change. U.S. markets will be closed today for the Fourth of July holiday. U.S. stock trading will reopen Monday. Dow 17,000: Index hits new milestone RICHARD DREW / AP Fireworks frame representatives of Macys as they ring the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped above 17,000 for the rst time Thursday after the government reported a surge in hiring last month that was much bigger than investors and economists were expecting. China eases banking controls Associated Press LOS ANGELES Amazon says that it is prepared to go to court against the Federal Trade Commission to defend it self against charges that it has not done enough to prevent children from mak ing unauthorized in-app purchases. The FTC alleged in a draft lawsuit re leased by Amazon that unauthorized charges by children on Amazon tablets have amounted to millions of dollars. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. said in a letter Tuesday to FTC Chairwom an Edith Ramirez that it had already refunded money to parents who com plained. It also said its parental con trols go beyond what the FTC required from Apple when it imposed a $32.5 million ne on the company in Janu ary over a similar matter. Amazons Kindle Free Time app can limit how much time children spend on Kindle tablets as well as require a personal identication number for inapp purchases, said Amazon spokes man Craig Berman. Parents can say at any time, for every purchase thats made that a PIN is required, he said. By not agreeing to a settlement with the FTC, the company faces a poten tial lawsuit by the FTC in federal dis trict court. Amazon vows to fight FTC over how it handles childrens in-app purchases

Friday, July 4, 2014 DAILY COMMERCIAL D1 DAY, MONTH XX, YEAR DAILY COMMERCIAL XX 2255GENERAL EMPLOYMENTPUBLISHER'S NOTICEFederal and State laws prohibit advertising expressing a discriminatory preference on the basis of race, age, sex, color, national origin, religion, handicap or marital status. The Daily Commercial will not knowingly accept advertisement for employment which is in violation of the law. Employment Advertising Standards of Acceptance Employment Classifications are intended to announce bona de employment offers only. Employment advertising must disclose the specic nature of the work being offered. Some employment categories may charge fees. If any advertiser does not comply with these standards, please notify a Classied Sales Representative at 365-8245 or 365-8200. r f n trfn b r fr nrtbt f

E2 SOUTH LAKE PRESS Wednesday July 2, 2014 / DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 Morris Realty and Investments Pe nnbr ook eCo me se e th is be au ti fu l Pe nn br oo ke Fa ir wa ys ho me i s th re e be dr oo m tw o ba th Ve nice o or pl an has a sp li t pl an des ig n an d has be en ext re mel y we ll ke pt Yo u wi ll en jo y be au ti fu l br eez es on th e sc re en ed po rc h ov er lo ok in g a lu sc io us ga rd en an d be au ti fu l pl an ts. In side th e mas te r is t fo r a Ki ng wi th la rge cl os ets, do ub le sin ks, a ga rd en tu b an d se pa ra te sh ow er e tw o ca r ga ra ge has an addi ti on al go lf ca rt ga ra ge wi th se pa ra te en tr an ce an d do or En te rt ai n in th e fo rm al dinin g or ha ve a ca su al me al in yo ur bre akf as t no ok i s ho me is ex cep ti on al $165,000 G4706229 Ca ll Le na Wi ll ia ms at 352-636-4488.Yo u will enjo y beautiful br eezes on the scr eened por ch CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writers WASHINGTON When the government updates its estimate Wednesday of how the U.S. economy fared last quarter, the number is pret ty sure to be ugly. Horrible even. The economy likely shrank at an annual rate of near ly 2 percent in the Janu ary-March quarter, econo mists estimate. That would be its bleakest performance since early 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession. So why arent economists, businesses or investors like ly to panic? Because most agree that the economy last quarter was depressed by temporary fac tors particularly the blast of Arctic chill and snow that shuttered factories, disrupt ed shipping and kept Amer icans away from shopping malls and auto dealerships. Since then, the picture has brightened. Solid hir ing, growth in manufactur ing and surging auto sales have lifted the economy at a steady if still-unspectacu lar pace. That said, sluggish pay growth and a stumbling housing rebound have re strained the expansion. But the economys recovery con tinues. We had a very bad rst quarter, but the rst quar ter is history, says Craig Al exander, chief economist at TD Bank. It doesnt tell you where the economy is go ing, which is in a direction of more strength. Wednesdays report will be the governments third and nal estimate of the econ omys rst-quarter perfor mance. Here are ve reasons economists are looking past last quarters dismal showing and ve reasons the econ omy still isnt back to full health. HIRING IS ROBUST If the economy really was tumbling back into reces sion, youd see business es laying off workers or at least clamping down on hir ing. That isnt happening. Employers are adding jobs at the fastest pace in 15 years. Thats a pretty clear sign that they see last quarters trou bles as temporary. And lay offs are down. The number of people seeking unemploy ment benets, a proxy for layoffs, has fallen 10 percent since the rst week of Janu ary. WINTER BLAST With summer in full swing, it might be hard to remem ber the brutal winter. But the cold damaged the econo my last quarter. Spending on autos, furniture, clothes and other goods rose at the slow est pace in nearly three years. With snow blanketing build ing sites, home construction plummeted in January. Al exander estimates that win ter weather slowed economic activity by about 1.5 percent age points on an annual ba sis. Yet the impact didnt re ect fundamental problems in the economy. Americans who postponed car pur chases during winter simply bought cars during spring in stead. Auto sales jumped to a nine-year high in May. CLEARING OUT STOCKPILES Another drag on growth last quarter was probably also temporary: Companies sharply cut back on their restocking of goods. That wasnt unexpected. It oc curred after companies had aggressively ramped up re stocking in the second half of last year. The slowdown in the January-March quar ter reduced annual growth by 1.6 percentage points, the government said. With growth strengthening since spring began, businesses are restocking at a faster rate again. Inventories grew 0.6 percent in April, the most in six months. HEALTH CARE COMPLICATIONS Last quarters economy will look bleak in part because the government needs to cor rect a mistaken assumption. It previously gured that health spending soared last quarter after many Ameri cans obtained insurance on the Obama administrations health care exchanges. But when data was released this month, there was no sign of such additional spending. As a result, consumer spending probably grew at a 2.3 percent annual rate last quarter, not the 3.1 percent previously estimated, ac cording to JPMorgan Chase. Consumers have accelerat ed spending since then: Re tail sales surged in March by the most in four years and again in April and May, boosted by auto purchases. This month, consumer con dence reached a six-year high. Thats a hint that spend ing will further strengthen. MANUFACTURING GAINS After slipping in the rst quarter, partly because of weather-related disruptions, Why a grim US economic picture is brightening AP FILE PHOTO In this March 21 photo, snow partially covers the ground where a single family housing construction is underway in North Andover, Mass. MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON The Obama adminis tration is extending for another year a program aimed at helping people struggling to avoid fore closure on their homes, Treasury Secretary Ja cob Lew said Thursday. He said the adminis tration is also expanding an effort to increase ac cess to affordable rent al housing. In addition, it is launching an effort to revive the portion of the mortgage market backed by private industry. Families and neigh borhoods across the country continue to re cover from the nan cial crisis and we must not lose our resolve to help them, Lew said at a conference marking the fth anniversary of the governments mort gage program. Lew said the Home Af fordable Modication Program had provid ed relief to more than 1.3 million homeown ers who have been able to permanently modify their mortgages, saving them $540 per month on average in their mort gage payments. He said the extension of the pro gram would last at least until Dec. 31, 2016, al lowing the administra tion to continue assist ing homeowners facing foreclosure and those whose homes are under water, with mortgages larger than the current value of the home. Lew said that the governments mort gage-support efforts had served as a model for the mortgage industry on how to restructure loans and help homeowners. He said the Treasury Department and the Department of Hous ing and Urban Develop ment are joining efforts to support nancing of FHA-insured mort gages for construction and renovation of rent al housing. He said the rst effort would help re store affordable housing damaged by Superstorm Sandy in Far Rocka way, New York. Ofcials said the program would boost construction and renovation of apartment projects by signicant ly reducing the inter est rates charged on the projects. Lew announces expanded housing support programs AP FILE PHOTO Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew testies before a House Financial Committee hearing in Washington on May 9. Fred Slotnick, a resident of Florida for more than 35 years, has a long history of working in real estate sales and marketing with more than 40 years of experience. He began his career in Rochester, N.Y., and moved to Florida in 1973. He joined the real estate industry in 2003 and continues to work in the industry today. Slotnick joined Steve Stifer to form Home Watch of The Villages, offering seasonal and vacation home watch needs for residents in Lake, Sumter and Marion counties, and recently received accredited member status with the National Home Watch Association for the second consecutive year. The National Home Watch Association was formed in 2009, offering the highest industry standards for home watch and absentee homeowner services throughout the United States and Canada. SUBMITTED PHOTO SLOTNICK GAINS ACCREDITED MEMBER STATUS IN THE NHWA Hold-Thyssen commercial real estate, based in Winter Park with ofces in Tampa and Nashville, has hired Christy Sharrer as a marketing assistant in the Winter Park ofce. R. Anthony Fisher, vice president of Hold-Thyssen Inc., said Sharrer has more than eight years of experience in customer service. She holds a technical certicate in graphic design production and will receive her A.S. degree in graphic design from Seminole State College in July. In her new role as marketing assistant, Sharrer will assist the Hold-Thyssen marketing team with production of marketing materials and marketing communications. SUBMITTED PHOTO HOLD-THYSSEN NAMES NEW MARKETING ASSISTANT SEE ECONOMY | E4

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SOUTH LAKE PRESS Wednesday July 2, 2014 / DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 E3 THE LIFE YOUVE WA ITED YOUR WHOLE LIFE FOR! Something for Everyone!! Let Us Find Yo ur Dr eam Home!SEASONAL & LONGTERM RENT ALS AVA ILABLE rY APPT 25327 US Hwy 27 Ste. 202, Leesbur g, Fl. 34748(352) 326-3626 ~ (800) 234-7654www .P ALREAL TY .net ST AR T LIVING THE LIFE!WESTWOOD SUB!Built in 2005, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, nice backyard. IN GROVELAND, FNMA OWNED. Mid 100 s #G4800429 CONSERV AT ION VIEWS!Custom split 3BD/2BA, granite countertops, double garage, OVERSIZED PA TIO! 260 s #G4700600 PepTalk......is a weekly feature in the Friday Real Estate Section. Its available for your Press Releases, Educational Milestones, Ofce Openings, and other pertinent announcements for the real estate industry. Please send your information to:RealEstate@DailyCommercial.comto have your information considered for this section. Photos welcome.(People, Places & Events) I ts summertime in Cen tral Florida, and in a mat ter of minutes the weather can go from hot and sunny to stormy with the tempera ture dropping 25 degrees. Extreme weather chang es are rough on your roof and, according to Mike Cur ry of Currys Roong, most homeowners have no idea until its too late. Curry says, The hot tem peratures on the roof cause shingles and ashing to ex pand, and with an afternoon thunderstorm there is sud den cooling, which creates contraction. This continuous expansion and contraction on the roof can create leaks over time. The other big factor when it comes to hot tempera tures on a roof has to do with poor ventilation. Many homeowners are unaware that a good roof starts with a well-ventilated attic. Ridge and off-ridge vents coupled with soft and gable louvers are essential in funneling ris ing hot air out of the attic. Attics that are not well ven tilated during the scorching temperatures of summer be come skillets for roof shin gles. Brittle and curling roof shingles are visual indicators of a poorly ventilated attic. Hailstorms are a resi dential roofs silent killer. Hail typically forms in larg er thunderstorms as winds rotate in the upper atmo sphere, dropping from thou sands of feet above the ground. Hail can form any where from the size of a pea up to that of a softball, with most hail being somewhere just under the size of a mar ble. Hail can structurally damage a berglass asphalt shingle roof as well as ding up a metal roof. Hail damage to a ber glass asphalt shingle roof usually manifests in a loss of granules from the shin gle because the smashing hail will literally detach the protective granules from the asphalt/berglass base. According to Curry, home owners of a hail-damaged roof will begin to see col ored roong granules in gut ters and where water runs off the roof. Hail damage is a silent roof-killer because the gran ule loss may continue for months before being no ticed. By the time it is dis covered by the homeowner, it may be too late or con tentious to le an insurance claim. For example, in ear ly June the National Weath er Service reported up to marble-size hail occurred in some areas from Leesburg to south Lake County. Most roofs looked just ne after the storm, but how many were structurally dam aged by hail stones plummet ing thousands of feet from the sky? Curry suggests that homeowners always have a state-certied roong con tractor inspect their roof for damage after a hail storm. A straight-line wind burst during a thunderstorm can structurally damage shingles and send poorly installed shingles ying through the air. In most cases, the big gest problem with wind is a tree limb crashing down on a roof creating actual holes in the roof. Before summer begins, homeowners should cut all tree limbs back and away from the roof. Central Floridas harsh cli mate is also rough on met al roong with paint fading as well as leaks from striking objects or piled-up leaves. The same heat-related ex pansion and contraction is sue can cause screws to loos en and seals to break, which can lead to leaks. No other area of the home takes the full brunt of Flori das extreme weather as does the roof, and a leaking roof is one of the last signs of a fail ing roof. Don Magruder is the CEO of Ro-Mac Lumber & Supply, Inc., and he is also the host of the Around the House Ra dio Show heard every Monday at noon on My790AM WLBE in Leesburg. Roofing takes the brunt of summer weather DON MAGRUDER AROUND THE HOUSE HBA of Lake and Sumter supports Lake County Animal Services TAVARES Mem bers of the Home Build ers Association of Lake-Sumter have cre ated GoFundMe in an effort to lend nancial support to Lake Coun ty Animal Services for upgrades and improve ments to the facility. Those interested in making secure dona tions to help with this project can go to www. GoFundMe.com/Lake CountyAnimalServices. For information on donating materials or services, call Carolyn Maimone at 352-2236519, email Exec@Lake SumterHBA.com or go to www.LakeSumterH BA.com. Additionally, Lake County Animal Services is seeking volunteers and foster families for the animals at the shel ter. To become a volun teer or to foster a cat or dog, go to www.lake county.gov/volunteer or email jnelson@lake county.gov. NAI Realvest negotiates two new office lease renewals ORLANDO NAI Re alvest recently negotiat ed two renewal agree ments totaling 5,041 rentable square feet of ofce space at ofce facilities in Lake Mary and Winter Park. Tom R. Kelley, II, CCIM, principal in the rm, negotiated a lease renewal of 4,000 square feet of Class A ofce space at 153 Par liament Loop in Lake Marys Regency Pointe ofce building. Nes co Resource, which was already leasing 2,725 square feet, expand ed into an adjacent 1,275-square-foot suite and extended its cur rent lease for ve years. The landlord is 153 Par liament Loop LLC. At Gateway Plaza in Winter Park Kelley, along with senior broker associate Mary Frances West, CCIM and associ ate Chris Adams nego tiated a renewal agree ment with Medtronic Sofamor Danek USA Inc. for the 1,041 square feet it occupies in Suite 420, 1201 S. Orlan do Ave. The landlord is Gateway Plaza LLC. Go to www.naire alvest.com for details. Two new Lennar models ready for viewing ORLANDO Lennar recently opened two new models for view ing at Traditions, one of the home builders new est communities, locat ed off of U.S Highway 27 overlooking Lake Ruby in Winter Haven in Polk County. Mark Metheny, presi dent of Lennars Central Florida Division, said the two models are the Ascot and the Kennedy. The Ascot model home features two bed rooms, two baths in 1,779 square feet of liv ing area with a two-car garage. Metheny said the Kennedy offers four bedrooms, three baths in 2,277 square feet with a three-car garage. Lennar has 13 sin gle-family oor plans to choose at Traditions ranging from 1,100 square feet of living area to 2,500 square feet on 40-, 50and 60-foot home sites priced from the $140s. Lennar is also build ing one of its special Quality You Can See homes at Traditions, offering buyers a cut away look at wall, win dow and roof construc tion, showing electrical, plumbing and air con ditioning work. Community ameni ties at Traditions include a 19,000 square foot clubhouse with ball rooms, Olympic-size swimming pool, t ness and aerobics facili ties, baseball, tennis and bocce ball courts as well as boat docks. PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS SUBMITTED PHOTO Blackton Inc.s company president Sean Monett is anked by the founders sons, CEO Michael Blackton, left, and COO Bruce Blackton, as the Orlando roong and ooring company supplying home builders from Jacksonville to Tampa celebrates its 60th anniversary. Michael Micky Blackton said his father Charles launched the company the rst week of May in 1954, in a warehouse next to the train tracks on Alden Road, near Ivanhoe antique row. Blackton started with a staff of four: Arthur Johnson, warehouseman; Gus Robertson, ofce manager and Vivian Mims, sales associate. Charles Blackton was both a salesman and truck driver for his company. Call 407-898-2661 for information, or email Micky@ Blacktoninc.com. BLACKTON INC. CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY JOSH BOAK AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON The num ber of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes shot up in May. But the pace of buying this year remains slower than in 2013, in part because of sluggish sales during winter. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted pend ing home sales index rose 6.1 percent to 103.9 last month. It was the sharpest month-overmonth gain since April 2010. The index remains 5.2 percent below its level a year ago. Pending sales are a barome ter of future purchases. A oneto two-month lag usually exists between a contract and a com pleted sale. Lower mortgage rates and in creased supplies of homes on the market drove much of last months gains. Signed contracts rose in all four U.S. regions: the Northeast, Midwest, South and West. The housing market is nally showing signs of momen tum, though overall buying re mains slower than last year. The sector continues to put the horrid (winter) weather be hind it and is moving on, said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. It certain ly helps that condence is high er, borrowing costs are slipped from the start of the year and it is reportedly becoming less strenu ous to obtain a mortgage. In a separate report last week, the Realtors said completed sales of existing homes rose 4.9 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 mil lion homes. Still, sales are down 5 percent year-over-year. The Realtors forecast that sales of existing homes will de cline 2.8 percent this year to 4.95 million, compared with 5.1 million in 2013. Sales of new homes jumped 18.6 percent last month to an annual rate of 504,000, the high est level since May 2008, the government said last week. Contracts to buy US homes up sharply in May

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E4 SOUTH LAKE PRESS Wednesday July 2, 2014 / DAILY COMMERCIAL Friday, July 4, 2014 D002840 You dont have to pay extra for an evening service call. Munns is the home of 8 to 8 Same Great Rate. Emergency services are also available. Were there when you need us!Carl Munn24 /7/3 65(352) 787-7741 CAC1814363 www.munnair.com2135 US Hwy 441/27Fruitland Park, FLD004559 The Lake & Sumter Real Estate SectionGets Results!For infor mation about advertising in this section call352-365-8287 factories are making more machin ery, cars, furniture and comput ers. Theyre hiring and giving work ers more overtime, which translates into bigger paychecks. Most analysts think the economy is growing at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the current quarter and will expand at a 3 percent rate for the rest of the year. The Federal Reserve foresees a similar improvement. Still, that pace would leave growth for the full year at about 2.25 per cent, only slightly above last years 1.9 percent. And despite all the posi tives, its worth keeping in mind that a truly robust economy wouldnt be thrown off so much by severe weather. Here are signs that the economy still hasnt achieved full health: HOUSING SLOWDOWN At the top of most economists worry list is housing. Rising home prices and higher mortgage rates have put homes out of reach for many would-be buyers. Even for people willing and able to buy, there arent enough homes for sale. All of which has slowed purchases, which fell 5 percent in May compared with 12 months earlier. Builders started work in May on just over 1 million homes at an an nual rate, below the pace of the nal three months of last year. The slowdown translates into fewer con struction jobs, smaller commis sions for Realtors and reduced sales of furniture, appliances and garden supplies. Yet there are signs that the hous ing market is stabilizing. Price gains are slowing. And mortgage rates have dipped. That could boost sales in coming months. In fact, data released this week suggested that this may already be happening. Sales of new and exist ing homes jumped in May. HIGHER GAS PRICES? Another threat: Middle East tur moil, particularly in Iraq, could cause oil and gas prices to spike. That would leave consumers with less money to spend on other goods and could lim it growth. Crude oil prices hit a ninemonth high Thursday. Gas prices av eraged $3.68 Monday, about a dime higher than a year ago. STAGNANT WAGES While layoffs have fallen back to pre-recession levels and hiring is steady, the economy still isnt deliv ering what most Americans proba bly want most: A decent raise. Aver age hourly pay, adjusted for ination, slipped 0.1 percent in May compared with a year earlier. Its still slightly lower than when the recession end ed in June 2009. Flat pay limits con sumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic activity. LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT Despite the pickup in hiring, 3.4 million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer more than double the pre-recession gure. Some may nd jobs as the economy recovers. Others will give up searching and return to school, retire early or care for relatives. Economists worry that the longer people are out of work, the more their skills erode. Having many former workers permanently fro zen out of the job market can slow growth. Last week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen expressed concern that longterm unemployment could create permanent damage to both those suffering through it and the broad er economy. UNEMPLOYMENT NOT AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS The unemployment rate has fall en to 6.3 percent, a ve-year low, from 10 percent in October 2009. But much of the drop has occurred because many people have giv en up on their job searches, re tired or stayed in school and nev er started looking. The government counts people as unemployed only if theyre actively seeking work. The rate has tumbled in large part be cause many of those out of work ar ent being counted as unemployed, not because hiring has soared. The percentage of Americans working or looking for work has reached a 35year low. ECONOMY FROM PAGE E2 CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON U.S. home prices rose in April from a year ago at the slowest pace in 13 months, reecting a re cent drop-off in sales. The Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller 20city home price index rose 10.8 percent in April from 12 months earli er. Thats a healthy gain, but down from 12.4 per cent in the previous month and the smallest since March 2013. Annual price gains slowed in 19 of the 20 cities. Only Boston saw price increases acceler ate. Home sales have slowed since last sum mer as higher mortgage rates and rising prices and have made it harder for would-be buyers to afford a home. Sales of existing homes in May were 5 percent lower than 12 months earlier. Prices rose 1.1 percent in April compared with March, though that gain likely reected seasonal patterns. Home prices typically rise during the spring buying season. Some of the hottest housing markets in the past two years are start ing to cool off. Las Ve gas, Los Angeles, Phoe nix, San Diego and San Francisco reported an nual price gains above 30 percent last year, ac cording to Case-Shiller. In April, their price in creases were all below 20 percent. Home sales and con struction started recov ering in 2012 from the Great Recession. But a sharp jump in mortgage rates last spring caused sales of existing homes to decline that summer. Harsh winter weather also dragged down pur chases. Recently, however, there have been signs that the housing market could be stabilizing. Mortgage rates have declined this year. The average rate on a 30year xed mortgage was 4.17 percent last week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. Thats up from 3.9 per cent a year ago but down from 4.5 percent at the beginning of the year. Lower mortgage rates and the slowdown in price gains may be helping sales. Purchas es of existing homes rose 4.9 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 mil lion, the National Asso ciation of Realtors said June 21. Thats the big gest one-month gain in nearly three years. US home prices rise at slowest pace in 13 months AP FILE PHOTO This May 19 photo, shows a home for sale in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. LILY LEUNG MCT Many of lifes essen tials, from cars to mobile phones, run on batteries. Will our homes be next? Two companies are ex ploring that possibility in a pilot case that involves storing the suns energy for residential use. San Jose, Calif.-based solar manufactur er SunPower Corp. has outtted a model home in Irvine, Calif., with a solar-panel system and battery that harness es power from sun rays that can be used in the evening. If the numbers make sense, SunPower and partner KB Home, a Los Angeles-based build er, could incorporate the systems into future construction to appeal to the environmentally conscious homebuyer. Its a real opportuni ty for customers in the future, said Steve Ruff ner, president and re gional general manager of KB Homes Southern California division. Ba sically, the power they generate can be used when they get home from work, using it as a backup system during a power failure or natural disaster. But obvious ly the system is brandnew. The test case in Ir vine, one of three in the nation, began about a month ago. The other locations are San Diego and El Dorado Hills, in Northern California. Over time, the exper iment will give compa ny ofcials an idea of whether something like this could work on a grander scale. Because the pilot case is still early, few details are available. If a bigger roll-out does go forward, home owners would own, not lease, the combined system of the solar pan els and battery unit. The cost is not yet available but would be rolled into the overall cost of the home. A so lar-panel system at a KB community in Ir vine could save home owners more than $200 monthly, on average. An attached battery unit would likely yield more savings. SolarCity Corp. also offers solar-storage sys tems. So far, the biggest bar rier for the mass adop tion of solar storage for homes is its high cost, energy experts say. The installation of so lar panels could cost as much as $30,000, which makes leasing an at tractive option for some homeowners. Home grabs onto suns rays in pilot case